I ask because I’m not feeling rested today.
See if you can make sense of it. Last night, I went to bed at 9:30. The alarm was set for 5:30. I fell asleep pretty quickly — felt like I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow! So it looks like I ended up with about eight hours of sleep.
Pretty good, right? But I felt like I hardly slept at all — like as soon as I closed my eyes, the alarm was going off and it was morning already.
The night before, I slept really well. I went to bed later — around 11:30 — and got up at the same time. Two less hours of sleep, but I also had a marvelous dream about going to a party with just about everyone I’ve ever met, worked with, or gone to school with. And they all were happy to see me and gave me huge hugs. It was a pretty awesome dream… I woke up feeling treasured and loved. And the feeling stuck with me for most of the day, too!
So why is it that sometimes it feels like we’re only asleep for a second and sometimes the night lasts forever? I’m not sure that science has an explanation for that. (Though I did learn some interesting things on the National Sleep Foundation website while I was looking for answers!)
Basically, sleep follows a pattern alternating REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement sleep) every ninety minutes or so. NREM sleep has four stages:
- Stage One: that twilight place between awake and asleep.
- Stage Two: sleep begins. Temperature drops; breathing and heart rate even out.
- Stages Three and Four: the deepest sleep. The body increases blood supply to the muscles, and the body grows and repairs tissue. This is also the time when hormones are released.
We spend about three-quarters of the night in NREM sleep and only a quarter of the night in REM sleep. REM sleep is where the brain is most active and dreams occur. During REM sleep, the brain and body’s energy is restored.
Hopefully tonight will be full of quality rest and more good dreams!