Each night, you usually pass through four distinct stages of sleep (Figure 4.5). These four stages include non-REM and REM sleep. A complete sleep cycle lasts about 90 to 110 minutes. Over the course of a night, you go through this sleep cycle about four to five times, depending on how long you sleep. The amount of time you spend in each stage of sleep, however, changes as the night progresses.
When a person first falls asleep, they are in non-REM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. Non-REM sleep is broken out into the first three stages of sleep as follows:
_______ occurs when a person gets drowsy and makes the transition from being awake to falling asleep.
_______ is a period of light sleep. In this stage, eye movement stops, heart rate slows, and the body begins to relax.
_______ is referred to as deep sleep. This stage is needed for a person to feel rested for the next day.
After the final stage of _______ , a person enters the REM (_______ ) sleep stage. The first period of REM sleep usually occurs about _______ after you fall asleep. REM sleep is an active stage of sleep during which a person’s breathing changes and becomes irregular, shallow, and more rapid. Heart rate and blood pressure also rise. A person’s _______ about rapidly from side to side under the eyelids, and muscles are temporarily paralyzed.
The _______ cycles of the night contain relatively short REM periods and long periods of deep sleep (_______ ). The periods of REM sleep get longer with each sleep cycle, while the deep sleep periods get shorter.
There are _______ available that track users’ sleep cycle patterns (Figure 4.6). These apps can identify if the user is getting enough good quality sleep. They also offer techniques and tools for falling and staying asleep. They can even wake the user at the ideal time, while entering the first stage of sleep. It is important to note, however, that many sleep experts do not believe that a sleep app can provide reliable, accurate data regarding a person’s quality of sleep.