![]() People with total blindness often have trouble sleeping because they are unable to detect and respond to these light cues. One key function of this clock is responding to light cues, ramping up production of the hormone melatonin at night, then switching it off when it senses light. On a typical night, you’ll cycle through four or five times.Īccording to Wu, there are two main processes that regulate sleep: circadian rhythms and sleep drive.Ĭircadian rhythms are controlled by a biological clock located in the brain. The cycle then repeats itself, but with each cycle you spend less time in the deeper stages three and four of sleep and more time in REM sleep. Breath rate increases and the body becomes temporarily paralyzed as we dream. ![]() ![]() Though REM sleep was previously believed to be the most important sleep phase for learning and memory, newer data suggests that non-REM sleep is more important for these tasks, as well as being the more restful and restorative phase of sleep.Īs you cycle into REM sleep, the eyes move rapidly behind closed lids, and brain waves are similar to those during wakefulness. The third and fourth stages are deep sleep. The second is light sleep, when heart rate and breathing regulate and body temperature drops. The first stage comes between being awake and falling asleep. The first part of the cycle is non-REM sleep, which is composed of four stages. Throughout your time asleep, your brain will cycle repeatedly through two different types of sleep: REM (rapid-eye movement) sleep and non-REM sleep. Here is a glimpse into the powerful (often surprising) findings of sleep researchers-and what they’re still trying to discover about the science of sleep. “But it turns out that sleep is a period during which the brain is engaged in a number of activities necessary to life-which are closely linked to quality of life,” says Johns Hopkins sleep expert and neurologist Mark Wu, M.D., Ph.D. Researchers like Wu are spending many of their waking hours trying to learn more about these processes and how they affect mental and physical health. Before the 1950s, most people believed sleep was a passive activity during which the body and brain were dormant.
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