![\"Pictured,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/39454292-9274511-Pictured_different_steps_of_the_night_sleep_cycle-a-35_1613665057402.jpg\")
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Pictured, different steps of the night sleep cycle.\u00a0Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep (marked in red) although some can also occur in non-REM sleep<\/p>\n
Sleep is generally separated in four stages. The first three of these are known as ‘non rapid eye movement’ or NREM sleep.<\/p>\n
The last stage is known as rapid eye movement or REM sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A typical night’s sleep goes back and forth between the stages.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stage 1:\u00a0In the first five minutes or so after dropping off we are not deeply asleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are still aware of our surroundings but our muscles start to relax, the heart beat slows down and brainwave patterns, known as theta waves, become irregular but rapid.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although we are asleep during Stage 1, we may wake up from it feeling like we didn\u2019t sleep at all.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
After around five minutes our bodies move into stage two.<\/p>\n
Stage 2:\u00a0This is when we have drifted into sleep, and if awakened would know you we been asleep. Waking up is still fairly easy.<\/p>\n
This stage is identified by short bursts of electrical activity in the brain known as spindles, and larger waves known as K-complexes, which indicate that the brain is still aware of what is going on around it before turning off to a sub-conscious level.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Heartbeat and breathing is slow, and muscles relax even further.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our body temperature drops and eye movements stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brain wave activity slows but is marked by brief bursts of electrical activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stage 3:\u00a0Stage 3 non-REM sleep is the period of deep sleep that we need to feel refreshed in the morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It occurs in longer periods during the first half of the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our heartbeat and breathing slow to their lowest levels during sleep and brain waves become even slower.<\/p>\n
Our muscles are relaxed and it people may find it difficult to awaken us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The body repairs muscles and tissues, stimulates growth and development, boosts immune function, and builds up energy for the next day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hypnagogia – the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep – is associated with NREM stages one to three.<\/p>\n
Mental phenomena during hypnagogia include lucid thought, lucid dreaming, hallucinations and sleep paralysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
REM sleep:\u00a0\u00a0REM sleep first occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our eyes move rapidly from side to side behind closed eyelids.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mixed frequency brain wave activity becomes closer to that seen in wakefulness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our breathing becomes faster and irregular, and heart rate and blood pressure increase to near waking levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep, although some can also occur in non-REM sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arm and leg muscles become temporarily paralysed, which prevents us from acting out our dreams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As we age, we spend less of our time in REM sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Memory consolidation most likely requires both non-REM and REM sleep.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source: US National Institutes of Health\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pictured, different steps of the night sleep cycle.\u00a0Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep (marked in red) although some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97,59,102,104,124,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-133267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-nhs","12":"tag-sciencetech","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}