Sleep Cycles facts
While investigating facts about Sleep Cycles Explained and Sleep Cycles Time, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Having your alarm go off more than once in the morning doesn't "slowly wake you up", but actually makes it harder by causing you to restart the deep sleep cycle over and over again each time you hit snooze
how sleep cycles work?
"in darkness most people eventually adjust to a 48-hour cycle: 36 hour of activity followed by 12 hours of sleep. The reasons are still unclear."
What are the different sleep cycles?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are normal sleep cycles. Here are 33 of the best facts about Sleep Cycles Per Night and Sleep Cycles Baby I managed to collect.
what are sleep cycles?
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As much as 7% of the population has experienced waking from sleep and being totally paralyzed but aware as mind & body become out of sync in REM cycles.
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Teenagers biological sleep cycles are 3 hours behind: Meaning waking a teenager up at 6 am is equivalent to an adult at 3 am!
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Humans can enter sleep cycles of 24-48 hours in the absence of sunlight
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Before the late 17th century, humans' sleep cycle was divided into two periods. The first sleep usually began at dusk, lasted four hours, and was followed by an hour or so of being awake. Then we had a second sleep, lasting another four hours.
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Melatonin levels secreted in breast milk vary depending on the time of day, helping a baby know when to sleep/wake up and thus regulate its sleep cycle. Babies who are fed formula have a harder time regulating their sleep cycle and are more prone to colic
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People can feel more tired after a nap than before it because of 'sleep inertia': if someone wakes up after entering 'deep sleep' but before a full sleep cycle is completed, parts of the brain can remain 'asleep' for up to a half hour afterwards, causing an exhausted, hangover-like feeling
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Scientists found that poor sleep creates a cycle of mental health problems. Lack of sleep causes mental health problems over time, and the mental health issues themselves cause additional loss of sleep. The cycle even effects around 41 percent of kids who have mental health problems.
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Cerebrospinal fluid flushes the brain of neurotoxins (beta-amyloid) during sleep (The cycle takes 6-8 hours) and a buildup of said toxins were found in patients with Alzheimer's an Parkinson's
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Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, in which the brain's circadian rhythm is delayed 2+ hours from the normal cycle, resulting in a total inability to sleep until extremely late. Often misdiagnosed as insomnia, DSPD patients have consistent sleep patterns, and don't have trouble staying asleep.
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You can calculate when to wake up so that you wake up between sleep cycles, making you less tired.
Sleep Cycles data charts
For your convenience take a look at Sleep Cycles figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.
Why do i wake up between sleep cycles?
You can easily fact check why do we have sleep cycles by examining the linked well-known sources.
Carbohydrates can affect levels of serotonin, but only indirectly. Eating carbohydrates together with protein-rich foods may boost the amount of tryptophan in your brain; tryptophan is then converted into serotonin. In the brain, serotonin regulates mood, pain perception, hunger and sleep cycles
Without REM sleep cycle and in the absence of external stimulus, the brain might stay in coma continuously until starvation and dehydration cause death. You could say, REM is the brain’s way of “booting up” its consciousness in the absence of an “external trigger.” - source
The lunar cycle effects our sleep, even when we can't "see" the moon. - source
8 hour sleep cycles are unnatural, and our regular sleep cycles are actually 2 four hour blocks with a period of wakefulness in between.
Waking up groggy often means you are interrupting a REM cycle. Because we experience 5 REM cycles of 90 minutes each, setting your alarm for 7.5 hours of sleep, moving 15 minutes forward or backwards until you wake feeling refreshed, will teach your body to wake itself after the last REM cycle - source
When do babies sleep cycles lengthen?
Snail sleep in cycles of 12-15 hours followed by 30 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
How sleep cycles app work?
If you look at your phone just before going to sleep, your brain is still processing those last few emails for at least another 15-20 minutes. Blue light emitted by devices may interfere at night with sleep cycles, meaning you’ll sleep better by reading a book instead
Your sleep cycle is regulated by the PER protein aka 'Alarm clock' gene & your body learns to increase PER levels approximately 1/hr before your alarm so that you gradually wake up instead of having your sleep cycle being interrupted by an alarm.
An extremely rare, incurable disease known as Fatal Familial Insomnia. No signs show up until your 40s, but then a wire is tripped, and prions collect in and destroy the thalamus, which controls the sleep cycle. Within 18 months of first symptoms, you die.
Blind people supplement synthetic melatonin (a hormone that regulates sleep cycles) in order to "teach" their brains when it's day and night. Without it they're arguably in a state of perpetual jet lag.
Sleep cycles infographics
Beautiful visual representation of Sleep Cycles numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.
What 100% sleep quality looks like (graph constructed by Sleep cycle)
