Page 22 - Seniorstoday November 2022 Issue
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Health
Your sleep checklist
Without enough sleep we all become tall two-year olds. Here’s all you need to know
about sleep and getting good amounts of it, writes Dr Nandini Saini
What is sleep? feel groggy and dis oriented.
Sleep is a state where, for a brief period, our The body and brain use this time to
awareness to the external stimuli reduces, repair muscles, build immunity regenerate
our body processes slow down. tissues.
What happens during sleep? Rem ( rapid eye movement) – In this
Till recently, it was believed that sleep was second type, the heart rate and breathing
just a dormant period, when the body and become rapid again, it’s not as deep as Non
the brain rested. We now know differently. Rem, and is usually the part where you
The brain and the body are, in fact, very get dreams. The 1st cycle of REM starts
busy, repairing tissues and rejuvenating. about one and a half hour after you sleep,
Throughout the time we sleep, our brain and lasts for about 10 minutes. The timing
goes through cycles of two types of sleep- increases in consecutive cycles.
REM and NON REM This sleep is very important, as it
Non Rem- this is the first type, and in stimulates the parts of the brain that
itself consists of four parts- the first part help in learning. It also promotes protein
hovers between sleep and wakefulness; if production.
woken up in this phase, you might not even Circadian rhythm
realize you slept. The second part is light This rhythm controls your sleep – wake
sleep, with the heart beat the breathing cycle over a period of 24 hours. Influenced
regularizing and slowing down. The third by light and dark, as well as external
and fourth part is deep sleep, and it’s environmental factors, the brain receives
difficult to wake up; if you do so, you may and sends out signals that monitor our
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