Sleep cycle Research Paper

An average person sleeps 8 hours every day, which translates to 56 hours in a week, approximately 224 every month, and about 2,667 hours in a year. From these calculations, when one reaches the age of 75, he or she has slept for 25 years. In the early years of childhood development, children spend most of their time sleeping. At this age, the children need much sleep for their development. Just like water and food, sleep is a necessity to maintain human life. Stage 1 The first stage of the sleep cycle occurs when one decides to sleep and closes their eyes. At this stage, the body drifts into sleep and the brain starts demonstrating waves that have irregular frequencies, slowing the heart rate and reducing the muscle tension.

This stage lasts for several minutes often less than ten, and the person can quickly return to being fully awake. During this stage, most people experience sudden contractions in muscles followed by a sensation of falling. The various defining features of the first stage of the sleep cycle include: i. As such, the body gets ready for a deep sleep during this stage. If one is to schedule a power nap, he or she would want to wake up after this stage of the sleep cycle (De Vivo et al. Due to the readiness for a deep sleep in this stage, the physical body loses all the muscle tone and can’t act out the person’s forthcoming dreams. A person spends about half of his or her sleep in stage 2.

After this stage, the body is ready for the subsequent stages which are associated with deep sleep. Also during these two stages of the sleep cycle, the person has no eye movement, and the body is immobile. However, despite the fact that there are no muscle movements during these stages, the muscles can still function in the stages. It is in these stages that some people experience sleepwalking, bedwetting, and nightmares. The two stages are also associated with the rejuvenation of the body. As the person is in deep sleep, the body releases hormones that help in both growth and appetite control (Hoque et al. Unlike all the previous stages, the fifth stage is characterized by increased brain activity. This stage occurs in periods, where the first period may last for about 10 minutes while the later periods of the REM stage last longer, and final one may last up to an hour.

A person may have about five to six cycles of the REM periods each night. In the fifth stage, the person’s heart rate and breathing increases. Most grown-ups spend about 20% of their sleep under the fifth stage, while younger people spend about 50% of their sleep at this stage. As such, the theory argues that REM sleep is vital for the mental health of individuals because the brain uses it to consolidate memories and transfer information to the long-term memory. However, critics argue that even when a person has little or no REM sleep due to the side effect of anti-depressant drugs, the person still shows no impairment of long-term memory capacity. Therefore, the significance of the REM sleep is still under question.