![]() ![]() A doctor can recommend a sleep study in a sleep lab or an at-home sleep test to see if a sleep disorder could be to blame, Neubauer says. Things like drinking alcohol too close to bedtime or in large quantities can disrupt healthy and consistent sleep cycles, as can keeping an inconsistent sleep schedule, according to the Sleep Foundation. If someone is not feeling rested and thinks it’s because they are sleeping lightly, they should look at the factors that might be contributing to their inability to achieve a deep sleep, says Dr. Neubauer. But more research is needed to confirm the results. The researchers found that people whose brains produced the most of these high-frequency sleep spindles were more likely to sleep through loud noises. Previous research suggests that differences in how sleeping people respond to noise may be related to levels of brain activity called sleep spindles. “But it’s not necessarily the same thing.” So, What Does Make Someone a Restless Sleeper? “There may be some overlap between what people subjectively feel about the depth of their sleep and what we find in the lab when measuring the different sleep stages,” says David Neubauer, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and associate director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center in Baltimore. Someone who gets eight hours of sleep a night, for instance, may not experience as much slow-wave, deep sleep as someone else who gets just six hours a night. Also, the amount of deep sleep someone gets isn’t necessarily correlated to the amount of total sleep they get. In general, as people age, they spend less time in the slow-wave and REM stages of sleep and more time in the lighter stages, according to a review article published in March 2018 in Sleep Medicine Clinics.īut it’s also important to note that how much time someone spends in light or deep sleep over the course of a night can vary significantly from person to person and night to night. This is the stage of sleep when the most dreaming occurs, as well as important parts of the memory consolidation process. Next is REM sleep, which is characterized by your eyes moving rapidly from side to side, as well as brain activity, heart rate, and blood pressure that actually look more similar to being awake than asleep, according to the Sleep Foundation. Stage three is the deepest and most restorative stage of sleep (it’s also called “slow-wave sleep”), in which breathing further slows, muscles relax, and tissue growth and repair occurs. ![]() Deeper sleep begins in stage two, as your breathing and heart rate become slower and your body temperature drops. Stage one, or the phase between being awake and asleep, is considered light sleep. ![]() NREM sleep consists of three stages, the first being the lightest stage, during which you’re most likely to be woken up, according to the National Institutes of Health. Everyone Should Cycle Through Light and Deep Sleep Each Nightĭuring sleep, you alternate between cycles of REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non–rapid eye movement) that repeat about every 90 minutes. In addition, some studies suggest that differences in brain wave activity during sleep may also make someone a light or heavy sleeper.īut whichever category you’re in, one thing is certain: The quantity and quality of the sleep you get both play an important role in your health. Genetics, lifestyle choices, and undiagnosed sleep disorders may all play a role. Just why, though, remains a bit of a mystery.Īlthough many people are self-proclaimed light sleepers or heavy sleepers, researchers have found that little is actually known about why people react differently to noises and other stimuli during sleep. For others, the wailing siren of a passing fire truck doesn’t disturb their slumber. For some people, the slightest noise awakens them at night. ![]()
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