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How much deep sleep you get depends a lot on how old you are. However, in current models, stage 4 and stage 3 sleep are generally merged under the category of deep sleep, as there is little reason to make these distinctions in the clinical environment. Original rules for measuring sleep stages included another category of delta wave sleep called stage 4 sleep. In children, it's what allows them to fully develop in adults, it's how our body maintains and repairs itself. Perhaps the most important part of deep sleep is the release of HGH. This can make it difficult to wake up a person in the middle of deep sleep. Fortunately, we experience most of our deep sleep in the first third of the night. Though stage 3 sleep only last a few minutes per cycle, it is the time of your sleep when you are least likely to be aroused. While half of our nights are spent in stage 2 sleep, and a quarter in REM sleep, we should also spend about 15 to 20 percent of our nights in deep sleep. pituitary gland releases human growth hormone (HGH).body tissues are repaired and new tissue growth occurs at the cellular level.These slow waves lead to muscle relaxation and a slower breathing rate this sets the stage for growth and healing. When deep sleep occurs, it is shown in the brain as large waves that resemble a delta pattern. In normal sleep architecture, we experience four different stages of sleep: stage 1 sleep (very light transitional sleep), stage 2 sleep (the stage of sleep we enjoy the most), REM stage sleep (in which we dream, and stage 3, or deep sleep (the deepest stage of sleep).Īs the chart to the right illustrates, each of the stages of sleep is identifiable, based on an electroencephalogram reading, by the appearance of the brain waves. If we are to remain healthy and functional into our later years, we really need to do everything we can to get our deep sleep. The amount we get depends not only on the quality of our sleep in general, but also on our age. Stage 3 sleep, also known as deep sleep, slow-wave sleep, or delta sleep, is important for a number of reasons. Much has been made about the importance of getting your rapid-eye movement sleep (REM sleep), but there's another stage of sleep that's crucial to good health as well.
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