While sleep deprivation is a common problem for college students, scientists are beginning to believe that sleep, particularly dream sleep, can have more benefits than previously believed.
Recent studies have found that people who spend more time in the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep are less likely to have fear related brain activity.
Scientists classify sleep into four different stages, which you cycle through during the night.
The first stage of sleep lasts from one to 10 minutes; it is a light sleep, you can very easily be awakened and may wake up feeling like you haven’t slept at all.
In the second stage of sleep, which lasts about 20 minutes per cycle, heart rate and body temperature begin to decrease. Muscle activity further decreases, and any consciousness of the outside world begins to fade away completely.
The third stage begins about 30 to 45 minutes after initially falling asleep. Brain waves begin to slow down and become larger during this stage. Moderate disturbances no longer wake an individual up in this stage.
Vivid and powerful dreams only tend to take place in the fourth stage of sleep, the REM stage. In this stage your eyes tend to look rapidly in different directions, and heart and respiration rates increase and become irregular.
This stage is often called the “paradoxical sleep” because during this stage, your brain waves are similar to when you are fully awake. This is the stage when people tend to sleep talk and sleep walk.
During this stage, there is more activity in the visual, motor and emotional parts of your brain, but there is also less activity in the rational part of your brain, which may contribute to your typical nonsensical dream.
Scientists are divided on why we dream. While some believe that dreams come from neurons randomly firing, some believe that it could be a subconscious way for the dreamer to separate memories or play through different scenarios in their head.
“Everything we see, every conversation we have, is chewed on and swallowed and filtered through while we dream, and either excreted or assimilated,” Rubin Naiman, a sleep and dream specialist at the University of Arizona, said according to Time Magazine.
Recent studies are beginning to show the benefits of REM sleep. One such study found that when you reach REM sleep, you are able to more accurately judge and process facial expressions and changes in your environment.
Another study conducted by Rutgers University found that the amount of REM sleep you get can contribute to how you react in a scary or traumatic situation.
While scientists aren’t sure why this happens, the theory known as the REM calibration hypothesis states that norepinephrine, a stress related chemical, is built up during the day and can be reset back to normal levels during REM sleep, making us overall less fearful and emotional the following day.
While it is strongly suggested that REM sleep could overall be beneficial, there is little way to monitor how much of your sleep is REM and there are few suggestions on how to get more of it.
REM sleep tends to make up 20 to 25 percent of your sleep, so some scientists suggest that the easiest way to get more REM sleep would be to sleep more overall.
However, while it is difficult to take action to get more REM sleep, it has been shown that the use of substances such as alcohol, drugs and nicotine as well as the use of artificial light at night could interfere with the REM sleep phase.
All in all, it is suggested that the best way to get a good night’s sleep is to go to sleep at the same time every night, limit caffeine, big meals and alcohol before bedtime, and turn off electronics a couple hours before going to bed.
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