Leveling Up in the Game of Health: Weekly Tips to Unleash Your Best Self 🚀🌟
When it comes to the mysteries of sleep, two distinct stages often steal the spotlight: deep sleep and REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. Both are essential components of our nightly slumber, but they serve different purposes and offer unique benefits. Let’s delve into the fascinating world of deep sleep and REM sleep to understand their distinct advantages.
Deep sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep (SWS), is the stage where your body undergoes physical restoration and rejuvenation. During this phase, your brain waves slow down, and your body enters a state of profound relaxation. Here are some key benefits of deep sleep:
1. Physical Recovery: Deep sleep is the time when your body repairs and rebuilds tissues, muscles, and bones. It’s crucial for overall physical well-being and recovery from the wear and tear of daily life or intense physical activity.
2. Immune System Support: This stage plays a significant role in strengthening your immune system. It helps your body produce cytokines, proteins that regulate immune responses, and helps fend off infections and illnesses.
3. Memory Consolidation: Deep sleep is associated with memory consolidation. It helps solidify information you’ve learned throughout the day, enhancing your ability to remember and apply knowledge.
4. Hormone Regulation: It’s during deep sleep that your body releases essential hormones, such as growth hormone and melatonin. These hormones are crucial for growth, mood regulation, and maintaining a healthy sleep-wake cycle.
REM sleep is the phase of sleep most closely linked to cognitive processes and dreaming. It’s characterized by rapid eye movement and heightened brain activity. Here are some of the benefits of REM sleep:
1. Emotional Regulation: REM sleep plays a pivotal role in emotional processing and regulation. It helps you process and make sense of complex emotions, reducing the emotional intensity of traumatic experiences.
2. Learning and Creativity: REM sleep is essential for consolidating and organizing information, particularly in the realm of creativity and problem-solving. It’s a time when your brain connects dots and generates novel ideas.
3. Dreaming: Although we don’t fully understand the purpose of dreaming, it’s believed to be intertwined with memory, emotional processing, and problem-solving. REM sleep provides a canvas for vivid dreams, potentially serving as a mental playground for your mind.
4. Brain Rejuvenation: Just as deep sleep rejuvenates the body, REM sleep rejuvenates the brain. It’s a crucial stage for cognitive health and maintaining optimal brain function.
Both deep sleep and REM sleep are indispensable for a well-rounded, restorative night’s sleep. While deep sleep primarily focuses on physical restoration and memory consolidation, REM sleep is essential for emotional well-being, creativity, and cognitive health. Striking a balance between these two sleep stages is key to reaping the full benefits of a good night’s sleep and ensuring a refreshed mind and body come morning.
Some hacks to increase my deep and REM numbers include the following:
1. Try not to be in front of screens 90 minutes before bed. If you are, wear quality blue blocking glasses to block out any blue light, which will disrupt your sleep.
2. Make your room as dark as possible. Cover any light from anything plugged in. When I’m at a hotel I will even put a towel at the base of the door to block light coming in…light disrupts your sleep!
3. Temperature – Make sure your room is cool, and bed if possible. Optimal temp is between 60-68 degrees, I like my bed around 62.
4. Supplement – 5HTP or Magnesium supplements help. I tend to use Magnesium since most American diets are deficient in Magnesium and there are other benefits. 5HTP converts to serotonin, I’ve used this at times too.
5. Caffeine/Alcohol/Workouts – Do your workouts in the morning if you can. Don’t drink alcohol or caffeine past 2pm.
BONUS TIP – Look at the sun as soon as you can after waking up. Sunlight exposure plays a crucial role in regulating our sleep-wake cycle and maintaining a balanced circadian rhythm.