Here is a topic everyone loves to talk about, but cannot seem to get enough of: sleep. Sleeping is great. And can sometimes be the point of life or death. Sleeping is also a mystery that psychologists are still researching, and rather, what your body does during sleep is a greater mystery.
There are four different stages of sleeping. The first and second stages are lighter areas of sleep, meaning you can just close your eyes and be woken up by someone calling your name. In stage two, sleep spindles occur. A sleep spindle is a burst of oscillatory brain activity, which is basically when you are about to go to sleep, your body hasn't adjusted fast enough, so you feel a jerk or jolting sensation. Stages three and four, however, are the much deeper stages of sleep everyone craves. It is harder for you to hear your name being called or your phone ringing in these two stages of sleep.
Rapid Eye Movement sleep is a phenomenon which occurs after ninety minutes of sleeping. REM is the random movement of the eyes, and results in lower muscle tone as well as your heart racing and you begin breathing quicker. It usually lasts in cycle for 90-120 minutes. Each cycle of REM sleep gets longer. In short, your body is really resting when when it is the REM stage.
Along with sleep comes with sleeping disorders. Insomnia, sleepwalking, sleep apnea, and night terrors are just a few of them. Insomnia is the difficulty of falling asleep. Sleepwalking is a behavior disorder that originates during deep sleep and causes the person to perform tasks such as cooking while sleeping (which is very dangerous by the way!) Sleep apnea is a serious disorder where a person's breathing is interrupted. A night terror is a feeling of terror or dread, usually coming from a nightmare or dream that did not quite end as expected.
In all honesty, sleep medication does cause insomnia because it suppresses REM sleep. Your body needs the rapid eye movement sleep in order to rest effectively. Treatment is necessary for someone with sleep apnea, because the absence of breathing while sleeping could cause other disorders when you are older, such as heart disease, renal failure, and so on. Night terrors will go away with time, and the best way to make the environment safe to prevent injury. Sleepwalking is merely harmless, unless you are making chicken salad in the middle of the night, then you would have to seek out a neurologist for help.
Also, you require less and less sleep as you get older, so it might be a good idea to get as much sleep as you can right now. Although stress is one of the big factors of not being able to sleep, just remember to breathe and relax.
