Unlocking The Secrets Of Sleep: Stages & Optimal Levels

Unlocking the secrets of sleep: stages & optimal levels

Sleep stages are often an overlooked but crucial aspect of our lives. Getting enough quality sleep plays a significant role in our life cycle. Check out the audio transcript to learn more.

Dawn (00:00):

Hello and welcome to the Gastric Health Show. My name is Dawn Boxell. and we are back this week to kind of circle back to a topic that I did a few weeks ago on sleep. I brought you some supplements that could give you right now rest all evidence-based supplements that could give you the opportunity to feel your best by enlisting one or more of those together to make for the best optimal sleep. But today we’re going to discuss more about the basics of sleep and unlocking the secrets of sleep by covering the stages and optimal levels of sleep.

Dawn (00:47):

Sleep is often overlooked, but really a crucial aspect of our life and getting enough quality sleep plays a significant role in your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. It can help your body repair, rejuvenate, support your mental and emotional health and improve your memory and concentration.

Dawn (01:16):

However, not all sleep is created equal and understanding the different stages of sleep and their optimal levels can help you get the most out of your rest. In fact, just saying that you slept eight hours doesn’t always mean you slept well or that you’ve gotten quality sleep. So that’s what we’re going to uncover so that you have the information you need to be empowered to make optimal health decisions and talk to your practitioners about. So important to know. But I think the science is really pretty clear that getting seven to eight hours of sleep nightly is important to your overall health.

Dawn (02:11):

Although you may be asleep for seven to eight hours, different things are occurring during this time that you have to make sure each stage is occurring at optimal levels to ensure that you’re actually impacting your health. Now, I highly recommend just a simple sleep tracker to understand how well you are sleeping.

Dawn (02:42):

For example, wearing your smartwatch or a Fitbit while you sleep will provide feedback on each sleep cycle and length. So this is something that you can easily do if you have a smartwatch, you have an Apple phone, the health app on your Apple device has all this data and you can easily find this just by clicking on the health app. It’s a white box with a heart in it, and if you click on sleep and then scroll all the way down to the bottom, you’ll hit see all data or show all data.

Sleep Cycles

Dawn (03:23):

And it will actually show you all the different sleep cycles and how many hours and minutes you’re actually sleeping a night and it will record it every single night. So you can go in and check at any time what it is that you are getting with your sleep. So great ways, tools for you to actually monitor and make informed decisions off of.

Dawn (03:53):

So that’s where I think having some type of tracking devices is super key. If you are struggling with your health, especially think like blood pressure, diabetes, insulin resistance, weight loss resistance, all of those are going to be influence. So before you start another medication, so if your blood pressure is rising or your blood sugar continues to rise before letting the doctor put you on another medication, just say, Hey, give me three months. Let’s check my sleep, let’s evaluate that and make sure I’m optimal in all of my sleep cycles before we decide to start another medication.

Dawn (04:45):

Because if we’re leaving this piece out, this is a huge piece of health. And if you’re leaving this piece out of monitoring or checking this, how do you know that this isn’t what needs to be fixed? That’s what you to consider. You have to think about, okay, yes, my numbers are bad, but is there something simple I could fix?

Dawn (05:11):

Is there something that I could do that would help improve these numbers without having to take another prescription medication or over-the-counter medication or a supplement? Doesn’t matter, they’re all pills. But if you want to have a talking point with your doctor, this is one that I will, I could probably put money on this. I’m not a gambler better or anything, but I think I could probably put money on this one and probably not lose that. It’s unlikely that you are getting asked on a regular basis.

Dawn (05:49):

how well you’re sleeping and how many hours you’re sleeping or if they even ask you, do you track your sleep? And if so, how many minutes of each stage of sleep are you getting? So again, this is a talking point and a great way to improve your health with not adding another medication. So that’s my 2 cents on that, but let’s kind of take a deep dive into the different sleep stages.

Dawn (07:00):

you’re going to hit four to six sleep cycles a night. So that would make for good a good night’s sleep if you’re hitting that four to six 90 minute cycles per night. So stage one, so let’s go into each stage so we know that they’re 90 minute cycles and you’re going to go through four stages of sleep during that 90 minutes and they’re each going to last a different time.

Dawn (07:28):

So it it’s going to be different. It can be different each cycle on how many minutes you’re in each stage, all four to six cycles. So in some of these stages you may actually have more intervals of one than four to six. You can go into some of these multiple times and not go into others. So that’s the good and the bad. That’s why you need this information. You need this data to really truly understand if this is maybe contributing to what you’re experiencing or your symptoms.

Sleep Stage 1: Awake/Dozing Off (5-10 Minutes)

Dawn (08:13):

So stage one is your awake or dozing off stage, and the first stage is referred to as a transitional period between wakefulness and sleep. And in this stage you may feel like you’re falling, like you jerk and jump, you experience fleeting thoughts, you experience muscle spasms. You may also experience a decrease in body temperature and your heart rate and this stage usually lasts between five to 10 minutes.

Brain Activity During Stage 1 Sleep

Dawn (08:44):

So most people, you are going to go through this stage one in five to 10 minutes. Now what’s happening with your brain during stage one sleep, when you enter stage one sleep, your brain activity begins to slow down from waking your brain waves transition from beta waves to alpha waves, which indicates, I know that means nothing to you, but that’s okay. But it indicates a decrease in mental activity. As a result of this decrease in brain activity, you are more likely to fall asleep.

Dawn (09:19):

So it’s helping you shut off the chatter and allowing you to kind of drift off or drift off to sleep. Now muscles what happens to your muscles during stage one sleep, you may experience a slowdown in muscle activity during stage one sleep. And during this stage you may experience muscle spasms or twitches. So you can still have that occur, but it’s going to be less.

Muscle Activity During Stage 1 Sleep

Dawn (09:50):

But the decrease in muscle activity helps your body relax and prepare for deeper sleep stages. So again, it is preparing your body, it’s getting the stress out, we’re turning the brain off, so we’re getting to where we can really fully rest. Now, what happens to your eye movement during stage one sleep, as you go into stage one sleep, your eye movements are slowed down and this is different from REM or rapid eye movement.

Dawn (10:21):

So your eyes may not move during stage one sleep or they may move just very slowly. So either way, your eyes are not going to be moving a lot during stage one. Now what’s the importance of stage one sleep? Although stage one sleep is the shortest sleep stage, it still plays an important role in your sleep cycle. And this stage prepares your body for deeper sleep by transitioning from wakefulness to sleep.

Dawn (10:52):

And if you do not undergo this transitional stage, falling asleep and achieving restful sleep may be more deep difficult for you. So if you don’t get in transition into this where your body is kind of transitioning to muscles relaxing, your brain is shutting off and your eye movements are everything’s slowing and calming down. If you don’t, then that’s where you may not be sleeping as well.

Sleep Stage 2: Light/Core (about 25 Minutes)

Dawn (11:20):

But overall, stage one is an essential part of sleep of a sleep cycle and a better understanding of these sleep stages can help you prioritize sleep and improve your sleep quality. So let’s go into stage two or the light or core stage of sleep. This second stage of sleep is called light and core light sleep or core sleep. And during this stage you become more relaxed and your body starts to prepare for a deeper sleep. Usually this stage between 25, 30 minutes.

Brain Activity During Stage 2 Sleep

Dawn (11:55):

So remember we’re talking that 90 minute sleep cycle, 25 to 30 minutes of this light core sleep occurs during that 90 minutes. Now your brain, what happens to that during sleep two or stage two sleep, your brain waves continue to slow down from their awakening state. However, you may experience brief bursts of higher frequency brain activity known as sleep spindles during this period of sleep. So you may be thinking, okay, what are sleep spindles and what do they do? And sleep spindles occur. Their purpose is to protect sleep by suppressing the external noises in stimuli that could otherwise wake you up.

Dawn (12:41):

So kind of cool that kind of help your body naturally has tools and things in place that can help kind of white noise it out. If you’re like me and you’re a mom, mom of four kids that you learned how you could totally zone out all of the drama that is occurring around you and be in your own little world, this is kind of what’s happening too, where you aren’t even aware of what’s going on outside of your bed or bedroom and you’re able to just naturally kind of continue to relax even further and get deeper into sleep.

Muscle Activity During Stage 2 Sleep

Dawn (13:31):

Now, what happens with your muscles during stage two sleep, your muscle activity decreases even further. And in this stage your muscles become relaxed, making movements, movements more difficult. So you’re not going to be moving much during stage two. And now what happens with your eye movement, your stage two sleep allow also slows down your eye movements. In fact, your eyes move slower than in stage one, but they still may move a little bit.

Dawn (14:06):

So it’s not like they’re not moving at all, but they’re moving less than what they did in stage one. And then the importance of stage two, why do we need stage two? And when you’re, it’s really not doing any specific work, let me show you why you still need this and why the majority of your sleep time is really going to be rooted in this stage. Stage two, your body transitions into deeper sleep stages during stage two of sleep of the sleep cycle.

Dawn (14:42):

This stage helps your body relax and conserve energy for later use and you may feel groggy or during the day or have difficulty concentrating or completing tasks if you don’t get enough Stage two sleep. So pretty important if you want to feel rested when you wake up, you’ve got to make sure you’re getting adequate of stage two sleep or the core or light sleep. So sounds like you wouldn’t want many minutes of light sleep, but in essence you truly do.

Dawn (15:20):

So that’s where it’s important to one track and you can on your health app, it tells you, it tells you how many it goes through how many hours and minutes you were in bed. It tells you how many awake minutes or stage one and how many intervals and minutes that you were in REM and how many minutes and intervals you were in core sleep.

Sleep Stage 3: Deepest (20-40 Minutes)

Dawn (15:46):

And then in deep sleep. So it goes through every single one on your health app and breaks it down. Same with the Fitbit, it breaks all that down, all those different stages and allows you to understand. What it is that your body is doing when you sleep. So how many minutes and hours are you getting into these different stages? Again, an important piece to monitor. So stage three, this is your deep sleep and non REM sleep is the third stage of sleep and it is the deepest stage of the sleep cycle.

Dawn (16:27):

So again, the 90 minute sleep cycle, this is your deepest phase and your body is in a deep state of relaxation and repair at this point in the process and it usually takes between 20 to 40 minutes to complete this stage. And this is an important stage that you could miss.

Dawn (16:51):

Say you had six sleep intervals and you potentially could only have one deep sleep interval. It is possible to not get into deep sleep at every single sleep cycle. So that’s important to know, that’s why you want to track it because if you don’t have this information, you’re not going to know if this is a problem, right? If you don’t look at this data, you’re not going to know that, hey, I’m not getting any deep sleep. It’s no wonder I’m having problems with my health because this is when repair and restoration is occurring, the deep sleep.

Brain Activity During Stage 3 Sleep

Dawn (17:39):

So let me get into that first, let me cover the brain. So your brain, what’s happening to your brain during stage three sleep? Your brain waves slowed down significantly during this stage and especially compared to stage two. And during this stage of the process, you may experience very slow deep delta waves.

Dawn (18:01):

And as we mentioned earlier about the brain waves, these waves are associated with the deepest levels of sleep and they help your body to recover and repair from the stresses and the strains of the day. So without these delta waves, so if your brain is not getting into the delta waves, then you are not going to be in that deepest level of sleep and your body is not going to do the repair, the restoration, the rebuilding that it requires your muscles, what’s happening with your muscles during this.

Muscle Activity During Stage 3 Sleep

Dawn (18:37):

when you are sleeping in the third stage, your muscles are even more relaxed than they were in the first stage. And as you enter the sleep stage, you may feel less sensitive to external stimuli. So you may have difficulty waking up in this stage. So think of those people that they’re being woken up, that if you have a hard time waking up when someone tries to wake you up, it could be that they’re wake trying to wake you up in the deep sleep phase.

Dawn (19:11):

So when you’re super relaxed, you aren’t going to be cognizant of that external sounds and touch and movement and stuff. You’re not going to recognize that in the deep sleep like you would in the light or core sleep. Next, what happens with your eyes during stage three sleep? During stage three sleep, your eyes do not move at all. This is because your body is in such a deep state of relaxation, it does not need to process visual information. So your eyeballs are not moving. And what is the importance of stage three sleep?

Importance of stage 3 sleep

Dawn (19:53):

This is where you have to where it’s good to understand that you need this data to make informed decisions about your health. Stage three, sleep is an essential stage of sleep as it is the stage where your body is able to repair and recover from the day. And the bo, this is when your body actually produces your growth hormones and will build and repair tissue, will strengthen your immune system and build bone and build muscle.

Dawn (20:27):

So if you’re working out and you’re not building muscle, maybe it’s your sleep, maybe this is a puzzle piece, part of the puzzle piece because there are other things that can interfere with building muscle, but sleep is definitely one of them. So if you’re working out, if you are from a surgery, if you there so many think of blood sugar, your blood pressure, everything, this is when it’s all the work is being done. And when you don’t get into this deep sleep, that’s when you will struggle with your health.

Dawn (21:06):

So you can see the importance of having this data and not knowing if you’re, yeah, I go to bed and I sleep for eight hours. Awesome, how much deep sleep are you getting? That’s what you want to know because if you’re getting optimal amounts, then guess what? You are going to do well with your health and be in no issues with blood pressure and diabetes or it will be easily more easily resolved if this piece is dialed in.

Sleep Stage 4: REM (Lasts 10 Minutes)

Dawn (21:43):

And I’ll get to all the optimal things in a minute on this, but when it comes to talk about stage four. So stage four is REM or the rapid eye movement stage during this stage. Stage four is there’s an increase in your brain activity during the stage and your eyes are moving rapidly back and forth behind your closed eyelids as if they are in a dream. And when your REM sleep, when you are in REM sleep, you are typically experiencing the most vivid dreams as part of your sleep cycle.

Dawn (22:18):

This stage usually only lasts about 10 minutes and occurs after all three stages of non REM sleep. So you’ve got to go through stage one, two, and three before you’re going to get into that REM sleep. So if you’re not dreaming, it could be that you’re not getting into stage three sleep, deep sleep and that’s why you never transition to dreams.

Brain Activity During REM Sleep stage

Dawn (22:44):

And it is funny if you think about it, if you’re having dreams, doesn’t it feel like they last all night long and they last for hours when they really last for 10 minutes? It’s kind of funny to think about in my eyes at least. But what about your brain activity during REM sleep? Your brain activity actually increases to a level that is similar to when you are awake, however your muscles are paralyzed, preventing you from acting out your dreams. So probably a pretty good feature because I don’t know if you’re anything like me.

Muscle Activity During REM Sleep

Dawn (23:21):

you have dreams of jumping, you have dreams of fighting and punching and doing running away. So it’s probably a good thing that your muscles are paralyzed so that you don’t actually do things, but you may experience some irregular heartbeats breathing your and your body temperature fluctuates during this phase. Now what’s the importance of REM sleep?

Importance of REM Sleep

Dawn (23:51):

REM sleep is essential for maintaining optimal cognitive and emotional health. So let’s think about it. If you are not getting into REM sleep you’re not getting, which means you’re not getting into deep sleep long enough to get into REM sleep, then you aren’t having those dreams. And this could impact your cognition and your emotional health. This stage involves the consolidation of memories and the processing of emotions in the brain. And you can improve your mood, boost your creativity and think more clearly if you get enough rim sleep.

Dawn (24:33):

So pretty cool. If you do not get enough rim sleep, you may experience mood swings, difficulty concentrating memory problems, mental health problems such as depression are more likely to occur when chronic REM sleep deprivation occurs for a prolonged period of time. So if you are struggling with depression and you’re considering an antidepressant or you feel like I need another antidepressant, have you evaluated your sleep and have you tracked it with some type of tracker to determine if you’re actually getting into deep sleep and REM sleep?

Dawn (25:16):

You’ve got to find that information out. Again, it’s just information, it’s data, it’s it’s a way to be informed and be an active participant in your health that you can actually make changes that have very little effort on your end. You can tweak some things maybe during the day or the night with your sleep habits and your routines that can help enhance your actual sleep quality. Now, what are optimal levels? So let’s kind of, the one that I really want to talk about the most for optimal levels is really the deep sleep because this is so important.

Optimal Levels

Dawn (26:03):

There’s of course optimal sleep for each stage of sleep sleep. So getting somewhere between seven to eight hours of sleep each night, you for actual restoration and growth during deep sleep, you should strive between 60 minutes to 110 minutes. So an hour to almost two hours of deep sleep every night. And I can tell you when tracking this, I don’t always get an hour, at least an hour of deep sleep every night and I can tell you

Dawn (26:42):

My next day is impacted. So again, one to two hours of deep sleep is very important. And this is where you’ve got to figure out where you’re falling in that because you need to make sure that you’re getting close to that at least the majority of the nights. If you’re getting 30 minutes of deep sleep at most a night, 30, 40 minutes, that’s a problem. You are going to have problems in your health and think blood pressure, blood sugar, insulin resistance, diabetes

Dawn (27:24):

all of those things are going to be impacted in a negative way and your levels are going to be maybe awful or they’re going to be elevated, they’re going to be in the wrong direction when you’re not getting this deep sleep. So you can enhance the quality of your sleep by knowing this level for or knowing each optimal level for each stage of sleep in tracking it.

Factors that Affect Sleep Quality

Dawn (27:52):

And that allows you to make those changes. Now, water factors that affect sleep quality, there are several factors that can affect the quality of your sleep, such as caffeine technology use. So caffeine can disrupt your sleep and you need to kind of have a caffeine curfew and so that you’re not having caffeine too late in the day and it’s keeping you up, especially if you don’t know your genetics because some people metabolize caffeine very quickly genetically. And this really wouldn’t impact you if you have that information.

Dawn (28:34):

And that is something that you can sometimes guess based on how you feel when you have caffeine, but if you don’t necessarily notice it but you are having difficulty with sleep, I would set a caffeine curfew so that you’re not interfering with those sleep patterns. So limiting your caffeine till maybe 12 or two o’clock in the afternoon and not having any type of caffeine after that time because it does take eight hours for your body to metabolize caffeine completely.

Dawn (29:10):

So it’s important to be mindful of that in how much you’re taking in. And then technology. So you got to think about the blue light from computers in your phone, and I would say probably the phone is the biggest issue for most people. That blue light actually reduces the melatonin or suppresses melatonin production. So having your eyeballs on your phone all hours of the night is a bad thing, especially all the way up until sleep because it is going to suppress your melatonin production.

Dawn (29:48):

And melatonin is that hormone that really is needed for us to sleep. So cortisol is supposed to be elevated in the morning and suppressed at night. And melatonin increases at night and decreases in the morning. So that’s the natural rhythm of what we call the Arcadian rhythm rhythm. And that is the pattern that you want it to do. If you’re exposed to the blue light for too many hours, it’s going to suppress the melatonin.

Melatonin regulates your sleep wake cycles

Dawn (30:22):

So your body’s going to be confused and thinking it’s not time to go to sleep. I’m not tired. And that’s because you’re not producing enough melatonin and thi because melatonin regulates your sleep wake cycles and possible to delay sleep onset and reduce the quality of your sleep when you use your devices before bedtime. So the more you are on your phone. Now, I can tell you I’ve seen all kinds of data on this. Some people are like, it needs to be two hours before bed. You can’t be on it.

Dawn (30:57):

Some people it’s like an hour. Here’s what I say, this is we are in the world of technology and everyone is on their phone at all hours. And especially when you can’t sleep, what are you doing? You’re on your phone. So the first step you can do is really just one, track your sleep, find out what’s happening with the patterns. What’s happening in these sleep stages, and understand where you’re starting from.

Dawn (31:28):

And then you can realize that okay, I am not getting into deep sleep so I know I’m on my phone until all hours, until right before I go to bed, maybe even in my bed. I use that before I go to sleep. I’m right on my phone. Maybe what you do is you start with, okay, I’m not going to be on my phone while I’m in my bed. Start there. And then you back it out and you see, okay, can I go 30 minutes? Can I put my phone away 30 minutes before going to bed?

Dawn (32:00):

see how that helps? See if your numbers change, then try it for an hour and see if that helps. Improve your sleep cycles, the numbers into your cycles. So again, it’s a testing game. You’ve got to test it out with what works for you. And same thing with the caffeine.

Dawn (32:19)
Play with the caffeine. And then you’re going to know, again, you can think of even things like having a meal too late in the day or too close to going to bed. Maybe even exercising too late in the evening can make an influence on you sleeping well and getting into deep rest because exercise actually increases cortisol, increases blood sugar when you exercise and then it will come back down.

understanding the stages of sleep and optimal levels can help you get the most out of your rest

Dawn (32:47):

But if you do that and then your ex, you know, go shower and then you get a bed, you body may not be in a state of relaxation. And then if you throw the phone on top of that to help you go to sleep. It’s actually doing the opposite. So let’s kind of wrap this up. Sleep fundamental aspect of all of our daily lives and understanding the stages of sleep and optimal levels can help you get the most out of your rest.

Dawn (33:21)
And in general, adults need seven to eight hours of sleep per night. But the optimal levels vary by sleep stage. So just because you’re in bed or sleeping for seven to eight hours does not mean that you are hitting those optimal levels of each stage that are necessary for optimal health. So sleep monitoring and a aiming for optimal levels for each stage can help you unlock the secrets of sleep and lead a healthier and more restful life.

Dawn (33:51):

So I hope this has helped and it’s giving you a resource to start and. A talking point for your next doctor appointment. And you will have the data. You’re going to get the smartwatch out, you’re going to wear it at bed. You’re going to make sure it’s fully charged before you go to bed. And then you’re going to wear it while you sleep and. You’re going to start tracking it and you’re going to start figuring out what you’re lacking.

Conclusion

Dawn (34:22):

Start working on the behaviors. Don’t start adding sleep supplements. And so you start working on the behaviors, just kind of creating that environment. Making sure your room is nice and cool and dark and making sure you’re not eating too late. Making sure that you’re not exercising too late and just all of those things. You’re going to do those behaviors first. Then you’re going to work on optimizing all those behaviors. Before you go into supplements or medications and sleep studies and all of that.

Dawn (35:01):

So all start with the basics and this will help you kind of optimize your sleep. I also want to encourage you to check out our gastric health membership. This is where you can find all of this great information. When I work with you, I share all of this information and data so that you. And we work on this. I ask you for this data. I want to know how well you’re sleeping and I want blood work, I want sleep data.

Dawn (35:36):

All of all these points that is going to give me information on providing your care. So check out our gastric health membership. It truly is the best value of working through your health issues and getting you. The kind of the optimal life that you’re searching for. No one goes into bariatric surgery just wanting to barely hit their goals. No, you want to feel your best and actually get to a place. Where you feel like your health is managed well and feel good at the same time. So check it out. And you guys have a great week and we will see you next time. Bye-bye.

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