Page 40 - Seniors Today - July 2021 Issue

Health
The Importance of Deep Sleep
(& and how to get enough of it)
And it’s the quality that matters… just eight hours of tossing and turning
does not suffice, writes Dr Nandini Saini
Sleep is such an important but
unfortunately often ignored part of our
routine. Adults ideally require seven to
nine hours of sleep in a day. Roughly, that’s
one third of your time.
Why is sleep so important?
Sleep isn’t merely our body resting. In
fact, it’s a very busy time for a number of
functions in our body – restoring dead cells,
enabling our brain to store old memories,
create new ones. It allows you to be active
and healthy when awake.
The mechanism of sleep:
Two processes regulate our sleep patterns:
Circadian rhythm – the ability of the body
to feel sleepy at night and wake up in the
morning without an alarm.
Homeostasis – Reminds your body to
sleep after a certain time, also controls the
intensity of sleep.
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The stages of sleep:
The stages of sleep are divided broadly into
two categories:
1.Non Rapid eye movement (NREM)
2.Rapid eye movement (REM)
There are five stages of sleep that rotate
between NREM and REM, each stage
lasting about 90 minutes or so…they
include drowsiness, light sleep, deep sleep,
very deep sleep and dreams.
Deep Sleep (also called slow wave sleep)
occurs in the thrid stage of NREM. This
stage is important as it’s the time when
your body repairs itself, the hormones are
regulated…vit is what makes you energetic
the next morning. It accounts for 20 % of
your total sleep, about 120 minutes a night.
Waking up from deep sleep is difficult and
may leave you drowsy.
What happens during deep sleep?
-Your body cools down, helps you conserve