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Sleep is The Fourth Biological Drive
There are two main reasons we go to sleep:
- Circadian rhythm: Every living creature on the planet has some sort of sleep-wake cycle
- Sleep pressure: Every second you’re awake, a chemical called adenosine is compiling up in your brain. The concentration of this substance is increasing your desire to sleep
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We Cycle Through Two Distinct Types Of Sleep
There are two stages of sleep:
- Rapid Eye Movement (REM): The brain activity is almost identical to when we’re awake. In this stage, we dream.
- Non Rapid Eye Movement (NREM): A dreamless sleep. During this stage, we’re calm, relaxed and the heart rate is slow and regular. There are four sub-stages of NREM Sleep: from 1 to 4, where 4 is the deepest form of sleep.
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Cycles of Sleep
Each cycle lasts around 90 minutes with different NREM / REM ratios:
- Cycle 1: NREM (80%) -> REM (20%)
- Cycle 2: NREM (70%) -> REM (30%)
- Cycle 3: NREM (60%) -> REM (40%)
- Cycle 4: NREM (50%) -> REM (50%)
- Cycle 5: NREM (40%) -> REM (60%)
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Interesting facts about sleep
- During REM sleep our body gets paralyzed by the brain in order to prevent us from executing on our dreams.
- Sleeping helps us improve. When we’re learning or practicing something and we stop, our brain will continue to work on these tasks on the background. This passive learning process gets even stronger when we shut our eyes.
- Sleep fuels our creativity. During sleep our brains build connections, nurturing our problem-solving skills and imagination.
- The main function of dreaming is to help us resolve past, or current, emotional problems.
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Alarming facts about not sleeping
- Consuming alcohol to persuade yourself to sleep is a bad practice. Alcoholic beverages mess up your REM sleep and you get a fragmented sleep.
- With age, our sleep efficiency declines. This is mainly because of our frequent visits to the bathroom. A simple fix will be to reduce the intake of fluids before going to sleep.
- A lack of sleep can lead to a lot of nasty outcomes: diabetes, depression, chronic pain, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
- You can’t sleep it off: Even if you get enough sleep to recover from last night’s party, the sleep deprivation will never heal.
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Tips for a good nights sleep
- Stick to a sleep schedule. Create a sleeping habit by going to bed and waking up at the same time, every-single-day.
- Exercise, but don’t do it before going to sleep. Your body needs at least 3 hours to calm down after a workout.
- Avoid caffeine and nicotine. The effect of stimulating beverages takes 8 hours to wear off.
- Avoid alcohol before going to bed.
- Avoid drinking plenty of water before going to sleep.
- Don’t take naps after 3 PM
- Relax before going to bed
- A hot bath before bed might help.
- Diss the gadgets and dim the lights in your bedroom
- Expose yourself to sunlight during the day.
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IDEAS CURATED BY
Curious about different takes? Check out our Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Summary book page to explore multiple unique summaries written by Deepstash users.
Dan Ciotu's ideas are part of this journey:
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Practicing stress reduction and relaxation techniques
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