Stage One Sleep

• When people are relaxed and ready to fall asleep, their EEG will show mostly alpha waves. When people fall asleep, they enter into stage 1 sleep, which lasts just a few minutes. In stage 1, the EEG shows mostly theta waves. Heart rate, breathing rate, and body temperature drop, and muscles r...

Stage 1 is essentially the “dozing off” stage, and it normally lasts just one to five minutes.

During N1 sleep, the body hasn’t fully relaxed, though the body and brain activities start to slow with periods of brief movements (twitches). There are light changes in brain activity associated ...

We spend about half our sleeping time in stage 2. It can last up to 50 minutes during the first 90-minute sleep cycle, and less during subsequent cycles. 

During this time the brain consolidates the information that has been collected during the waking hours. It makes connections yo...