What Happens During Sleep

Despite feeling refreshed after a good night’s sleep, your body doesn’t just switch off overnight. Sleep is a dynamic process characterised by various biological activities. While you rest, numerous vital processes persist: your heart continues beating, certain muscles stay active to facilitate breathing and digestion, and your brain remains active, benefiting from the electrical stimulation provided during sleep to enhance cognitive performance, decision-making, and memory retention.

Sleep serves as a crucial period for routine maintenance. If we liken the body to a machine, sleep acts as its “idle” mode, allowing for necessary repairs to take place. Specifically, metabolic activity decreases, and body temperature drops during sleep, enabling the conservation of energy for tissue growth and regeneration. Additionally, blood flow to the muscles increases, energy is replenished, and hormones that support growth and development are released. Sufficient sleep is essential for optimal immune system function, as inadequate sleep renders individuals more susceptible to respiratory viruses and other pathogens.

So, what happens during sleep?

Sleep is a complex process comprised of various stages that we cycle through during the night. These stages include REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, known for vivid dreaming, and non-REM sleep (NREM), which consists of several stages denoting the depth of sleep.

Stage 1/N1: This initial stage marks the transition from wakefulness to sleep, lasting one to five minutes. Awareness of surroundings may persist, and it’s easy to be roused during this phase.

Stage 2/N2: The body enters a deeper state of relaxation during this stage, characterized by a drop in temperature, slower breathing and heart rate, and reduced brain activity, punctuated by sleep spindles believed to aid memory consolidation.

Stage 3/N3: Deep sleep ensues, with the body relaxing further. This stage is deemed crucial for restorative sleep and typically occurs in the first half of the night, lasting 20-40 minutes in each cycle.

Stage 4/REM: REM sleep is vital for cognitive functions like memory, learning, and creativity. It is when vivid dreams commonly occur, typically beginning around 90 minutes into sleep. REM stages constitute about 25% of adult sleep, with each stage increasing in duration throughout the night.

A good night’s sleep can be significantly disrupted by sleep apnoea, a condition characterised by pauses in breathing or shallow breaths during sleep. These interruptions in breathing can occur multiple times throughout the night, leading to frequent awakenings and a fragmented sleep pattern. As a result, individuals with sleep apnoea often experience excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating due to the poor quality of sleep. Effective management of sleep apnoea through treatments like CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) therapy or lifestyle changes is crucial for restoring uninterrupted sleep and improving overall well-being.

 Addressing sleep apnea is vital not only for restoring uninterrupted sleep but also for promoting overall health, as it directly impacts what happens during sleep and affects various aspects of daily functioning.