Sleep fuels the brain. It helps us stay active and alert throughout our days. And there are many reasons we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping (or attempting to do so).
A lack of quality shut-eye can have a grave effect on your immune system, stress levels, blood pressure and cardiovascular health. The CDC recommends at least seven or more hours of sleep per night. Yet, more than a third of American adults fall short of that standard. The obvious advice here is to simply make more time for rest. However, sleep is a complex matter and it's not just the duration of sleep that's important.
According to Alex Dimitriu, a psychiatrist and sleep medicine expert, we can break down a night's rest into a specific cyclical pattern known as sleep architecture. This pattern consists of four to five sleep cycles that alternate between rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep. Dimitriu explains that our body needs these different cycles to feel fully rested in the morning.
