Sleep cycles are part of our internal biological “clocks” the regularly occurring patterns of brain waves which occur while we sleep.
Hi again!
As I mentioned in my previous blog (check it out if you haven’t), I’ll be exploring the concept of sleep cycles and how it’s related to our brain.
Of course, a fun fact about sleep right before we begin!
Did you know we almost spend 27 years of our lives just sleeping? Plus, almost 8 years just trying to fall asleep? That’s basically 35 years of our lives we spend in our beds! Crazy, right?A common misconception about sleep is that our brain and body are at rest, and that it’s a more passive process. However, our sleep-time is probably the most important period of our day since this is when our brain gets rid of toxins, carries out necessary life processes, and helps improve our quality of life.
While sleeping, our brain continuously shifts through two cycles: REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and non-REM sleep. During the non-REM phase, our learning and memory tasks are carried out by the brain, followed by a restorative phase for us to restore our energy. Whereas, during the REM phase, our eyes are rapidly moving behind our eyelids, and we become temporarily paralyzed and start to dream! This cycle continues at least four or five times during the night, becoming shorter each time.
*A PET Scan where the red colour depicts the active areas of our brain, and blue depict the inactive areas during different phases of our sleep.
That's all I have for today!
I hope this was as fun to read for y’all as it was to write! Stay tuned for my next blog!
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