The importance of Deep Sleep
I am a big believer in the importance of sleep and have a pretty set routine which I have become faithful to no matter where I am: I wear a sleep mask (preferably silk and adjustable so that it doesn’t dry my eyes), I put on earplugs (mostly because of my cat) and I sprinkle a little bit of lavender essence on my pillow and all around the room which relaxes me.
During the Deep Sleep phase our body starts to repair itself.
Although I sleep pretty soundly, because my sleep gets interrupted quite often by my cat, sometime ago I started tracking it with the Apple watch. I was curious to see what’s the overall quality of my sleep and the intensity of the various sleep phases I go through. What I discovered is that, although I do get my recommended 7 hours of sleep, I only get less than an hour of what is called deep sleep.
What is deep sleep?
During our sleep we pass through 4 stages of sleep. The first two are light phases where our body temperature drops, the heart rate slows down and we start to relax. The deep sleep phase is the third phase, also known as slow-wave sleep, when the electrical activity in our brain has long waves with low frequency. The last phase, known as REM (Rapid eye movement) is when we actually dream. This phase is a lighter sleep phase and it’s important especially as it helps us regulate our mood.
It is critical for a good night sleep that we pass through all the phases as they all have an important function for our well being, but because all the repair in our body happens in the deep sleep phase, this is the most important as our body releases a growth hormone that repairs bones, muscle and skin tissues.
On average deep sleep should be 20% of our total sleep, so between 1.4 and 1.8 hours. Anything less and you will feel drowsy and cognitively sluggish.
It is also a very important phase for cognitive functions and memory as our brain repairs over stimulated synapsis after a day of learning and reset them for a new day. It is the phase during which our body regulates glucose metabolism and strengthens the immune system: when we don’t get enough deep sleep we tend to eat more carbs as our body craves them and we are more prone to infections.
In general lack of sleep is detrimental to our wellbeing, but without enough deep sleep our metabolism gets lower, we are more prone to having high blood pressure, diabetes and of course mood swings.
Having a pre sleep routing is important to get us into a relaxing state.
What can you do to get more deep sleep?
Here are a few lifestyle changes that can help you with that: exercise regularly to destress; reduce intake of caffeine, especially after 2pm; eat more fiber, it will help with gut balance; reduce alcohol intake, especially at night as it’s a stimulant and it keeps you awake; avoid staring at screens right before bedtime, because of the blue light emitted by your device; take some time to wind down and possibly add some evening meditation and sleep yoga, known as yoga nidra, to your routine.
There was a time when I was particularly stressed and yoga nidra, along with alternate nostril breathing, greatly improved my sleep quality. I also like to drink herbal tea right before sleep, I feel the warmth puts me in a relaxed state.
Sleep is very important for our brain and body. Make it count!
Try it and let us know what you think!
