All About Sleep!

Sleep is an important part of life without which we can’t survive in a healthy manner. People consider it an achievement to stay awake for more than 24-48 hours. Little do they know what impact this has on their physical and mental states and overall well-being.

Sleep not only rejuvenates and heals your body but it also does something more than that. Sleep helps our brain to get solutions and answers to the problems and unanswered questions that we are facing in our day to day life. Einstein slept for almost 10 hours a day. He even confessed that ‘The Theory of Relativity’, one of his greatest achievements came to him in a dream. I am not suggesting that you do what Einstein did but you should think that if one of the greatest minds in the history of mankind gave that much importance to sleep, you should think about it too…

There are two kinds of sleep: -

· Non Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) Sleep

· Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep

We oscillate between these two every 90 minutes during a normal sleep cycle.

When we just fall asleep, we go to NREM sleep or deep sleep. In NREM sleep, there are three stages. As we go through these stages, our sleep becomes progressively deeper and deeper. In NREM sleep:

· Wounds are healed

· White blood cells are created to aid your body’s defences

· The muscles are restored

· The growth hormone is released

Then after 90 minutes, we switch to REM sleep. This stage is important as during NREM sleep our brain is inactive and it is dangerous for our brain to remain inactive for longer durations. In REM sleep our brain is active while our body is still in,,active. So, we dream, process memories and form new skills. So, in this way in REM sleep we get solutions to our problems and answers to unanswered questions.

In my personal experience, I have seen that if I don’t see any screens (phones, laptop, etc.) 2-3 hours before going to sleep, I sleep better and wake up early next morning as an added bonus.

But if I watch any screen, even though using night mode, blue light filters and other things, it doesn’t make much of a difference without using these filters, the quality of my sleep isn’t good and I sleep longer than needed.

It has something to do with Melanopsin (pigment that helps eye cells assess light brightness) and Melatonin (hormone that regulates the sleep–wake cycle) and their reaction to blue light emitted by the displays of electronic devices. In simple terms blue light from sources other than the Sun affects out circadian rhythm and the quality of our sleep.

You know you had quality sleep last night when you wake up next morning feeling completely rested, energized and motivated for the day.