Everything about the 5 different sleep phases
In this blog we tell you more about the world between good night and good morning. We will take you from the moment you fall asleep slightly until the moment you wake up (completely rested). During an entire night you go through no fewer than 5 different sleep phases. We would like to tell you more about your sleep cycle and how you can optimize it.
The 5 different sleep phases
During the day your body has to work very hard. That's why it's important that you give it time to reset and rest at night. This is the only way you can recharge your batteries for a new day. This happens in 5 different phases: the falling asleep phase, light sleep, the transition phase to deep sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep. That seems like quite a sandwich, but your body actually needs about 2 hours to completely go through those 5 phases:
- 1) falling asleep phase: 5-10 minutes
- 2) light sleep: 60 minutes
- 3) transition phase to deep sleep: 5-10 minutes
- 4) deep sleep: 20 minutes
- 5) REM sleep: 20 minutes
The differences between the sleep phases
All 5 stages of sleep are important and you need to go through them all for a good night's sleep. On average, you go through about 4 to 5 sleep cycles per night. These can of course be interrupted at any time. Every time you complete the sleep cycle, you wake up briefly. Often it is so short that you don't even notice it.
The cycle you go through looks like this:
- 1) You fall asleep in the sleep onset phase.
- 2) During the light sleep phase, you no longer wake up from every sound, but you are also not yet completely asleep.
- 3) Then you enter a transition phase between light and deep sleep. In this phase your muscles relax, you start breathing more slowly and your heart rate decreases.
- 4) In the deep sleep phase, your body recovers and your batteries are recharged. When someone wakes you up at this stage of the process, you are completely disoriented.
- 5) The abbreviation REM from REM sleep stands for Rapid Eye Movement. In this phase you relive your day. Your brain is activated again and your eyes move constantly. This is also the phase in which you dream
How Much Deep Sleep Do You Need?
To give your body the chance to recover at night, it is important that you get as much deep sleep and REM sleep as possible. These two phases ensure physical and mental recovery and last about 30 to 45 minutes in total. At this point you will no longer be conscious and you will also be very disoriented when you are woken up. Typically, your sleep cycles become shorter during the night. The first 4 hours of the night are the most important and then several interrupted cycles often follow, each ending in the light sleep phase. If you want to sleep in, it is best to sleep 1 cycle longer than normal. That's about 1.5 hours. To ensure that your cycle is less interrupted, it is important that you optimize your sleep rhythm. In our previous blog post we would like to give you a number of concrete tips & tricks.
Invest in a good sleep system
Naturally, a good night's sleep starts with a good sleep system. Unfortunately, there is no one magic mattress on which elke person can go through the 5 sleep phases undisturbed. Depending on your wishes and needs, we would be happy to explore the options in our store with you. For example, are you a stomach sleeper? Then it is important that the mattress supports your body sufficiently so that you can go through all sleep phases without waking up with pain in your back. Do you get hot quickly and therefore find it difficult to fall asleep? Then a Technogel mattress can offer you a solution. Thanks to its cooling top layer, you can enjoy 40% better sleep quality and the mattress also stays cooler during the night.
Our range consists of top brands such as Auping , M line, onlineor visit the store for tailor-made sleep advice. Our sleep experts take the time to map out your sleeping position with you and give you the opportunity to test all suitable pillows and mattresses.
