However, both slow-wave sleep minutes and slow-wave brain activity have been found to decrease with age, which means deeper sleep may be harder to come by as you get older. Women on average tend to have more slow-wave sleep than men, according to Espie. Yep, some people may not be getting enough deep sleep. REM sleep was previously thought to be the most important sleep phase for learning and memory, but newer data suggests that non-REM sleep is more important for these tasks, as well as being the more restful and restorative phase of sleep, per Johns Hopkins Medicine. The 12 Best Sleep Trackers To Optimize Your Health.Here's why deep sleep is so important.ĭeep sleep allows the body to release growth hormone while it works to build and repair muscles, bones, and tissue, and strengthen immune system functioning, according to the Sleep Foundation. He also serves as a professor of sleep medicine at the University of Oxford and the clinical director of the Oxford Online Program in Sleep Medicine. Meet the expert: Colin Espie, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience and the founder of the Experimental & Clinical Sleep Medicine research program in the Sir Jules Thorn Sleep & Circadian Research Institute. And as it turns out, this type of sleep is important for your overall health. The deepest part of sleep occurs during the first third of the night, which is sometimes called slow-wave sleep because of higher brain waves occurring at a lower frequency. The first stage is the transitional phase between wakefulness and sleep, while the second stage comprises the largest proportion of adult sleep, but the first phase of stage two sleep is usually pretty short, Espie says. The brain alternates between NREM and REM sleep in what is known as a sleep cycle. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play The stages of NREM sleep are defined by changes in brain activity and generally reflect increasing sleep depth as one progresses through each of the three stages, he explains. As the name implies, this is when you're in a deep slumber and it's hard for someone to wake you up. Deep sleep is the third stage of NREM sleep, when the brain’s electrical activity slows down and settles into a harmonized rhythm, says Colin Espie, PhD, a professor of sleep medicine in the department of clinical neurosciences at the University of Oxford and co-founder and chief scientist of Big Health, which offers digital therapeutics for insomnia and anxiety. There are two states to shut-eye: rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep and non-REM (NREM) sleep (which consists of three stages and takes place first).

How to get more deep sleep is probably not high on your priority list, but it should be.įirst, let's get to know your sleep better. One that has become particularly buzzy lately is deep sleep. Turns out when you talk about sleep, there are several phases and stages involved. Restful sleep isn’t a myth, even though it might seem all but elusive for many people. If it seems like you’ve forever been chasing more and better sleep, you’re not alone.

Average amount of deep sleep a night