Good evening, everybody. It is Food for Thought,
Thoughts that Fit for You by Neogentrics. And
I am back once again with another exciting topic.
We're going to continue on with the nutrition
path, but I'm going to take a slight sidestep
here as this is related to everything I've been
talking about up until this point, even before
this. Uh, of course, after the moral series,
when I finished that, um, everything that I've
been talking about up until now, I've been mentioning
how giving enough rest is important for a lot
of different reasons and how it helps with your
emotional state and otherwise. So for these next
two podcasts, it's going to be a two part series.
Uh, each one about maybe 15 minutes long, give
or take. Um, I'm going to talk about what is
sleep in this. And then in the part two, I'm
going to cover why sleep is even important in
the first place and how to sleep. So with that,
let's go back to that question I asked a second
ago. What is sleep? The exact reasons why we
need to sleep is still mysterious. So it's a
good idea to go and study about this and figure
out what it is. As to why it's a mystery, no
one knows. But it is known that in order for
humans and many other species to be able to function
optimally, periods of sleep are required. And
this has been proven true in every form of science
that we have up until now. Okay? How much sleep
do we need? There's the question. Well, before
we go into that... We need to cover the fact
that during the periods of sleep, our body repairs
muscles and our mind stores, organizes, and links
memories. At the same time, important hormones
that control essential bodily functions are regulated
in the bloodstream, our immune system is again
strengthened, and the risk of serious disease
is reduced. This all plays a factor into how
much sleep we need. There is no hard and fast
rule as to how much sleep we each need, but just
a general requirement for most people. is a amount
of sleep at different times is great you know
depending on their lives your optimal sleep time
may vary from that of other people's children
and teenagers generally you need to sleep more
than adults most adults require between seven
to nine hours of sleep at night in a 24 hour
period of course where elderly people needing
them out the same amount of sleep but possibly
finding it more difficult to do so On average,
we spend about a third of our lives sleeping,
but this should not be considered wasted time
as sleep is paramount to our performance and
well -being during waking hours. Some people
have famously claimed to function well on less
sleep, like Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton,
and Madonna. They have all reported that they
only need about four hours of sleep at night,
but some experts believe that some people are
simply unaware that they are in fact more tired
during waking hours than during the norm. So,
with that being said, the quality of sleep and
the sleep cycle are very important. Quality of
sleep is defined as uninterrupted sleep over
a period of approximately 7 to 9 hours. This
is a known fact worldwide. If sleep isn't interrupted,
then there is a less chance that the body will
have had time to perform all of its essential
tasks. During the night, we alternate between
different types of sleep, and this is known as
the sleep cycle or sleep architecture, for those
who know what that is. There are two main types
of sleep. which make up the sleep cycle. Non
-rapid eye movement, or RM, and rapid eye movement,
REM, which is sleep. Approximately 75 % of the
sleep time is made up of the NREM sleep, and
the remaining 25 % is made of REM sleep. The
difference between these two are the following.
NREM sleep is typically categorized into three
distinct phases. Phase one being, this is the...
the transition stage of being awake and beginning
to fall asleep. Often people do not think of
this stage as sleep and feel more awake than
in other stages. It is not uncommon to still
be broadly aware of surroundings during this
stage of sleep and the body may experience involuntary
jerking and twitching movements known as hypnotic
jerk. Hypnotic jerks are normal but are more
prevalent in younger people but stress and other
factors may increase the frequency of these when
you're phasing between the two. where you think
you're awake and you're not. Phase two, by the
time you reach stage two of NREM sleep, your
body starts to become more relaxed. Breathing
and heart rate slows, and we become less aware
of the environment factors such as sound and
light. Temperature becomes more important factor
during this stage, as our body's temperature
naturally drops. If our surrounding area is too
hot, then we can feel uncomfortable trying to
go into the sleep state, and therefore, become
unable to sleep the third stage is the deepest
phase of nrem sleep and the most beneficial to
overall well -being as during these phases the
body works on rejuvenation stage three is um
characterized by slower breathing heartbeat rates
leading to lower blood pressure the heart provides
more blood to relax muscles which promotes repair
and growth this is why you have to stop after
you work out and take a rest A series of hormones
is released into the bloodstream which helps
to regulate and control tissue and muscle growth
and repair as well as regulate our metabolisms
and our appetites. Now REM sleep. REM sleep occurs
for approximately a quarter of the time we spend
asleep. This type of sleep is characterized by
fast, darting eye movements in the time when
we are most likely to experience dreams. It does
not occur until approximately 90 minutes to 2
hours after we first fall asleep, and it lasts
relatively short periods of time but repeats
during the night at approximately 90 minute intervals.
The duration of REM sleep sessions increases
during the night. Longer periods of REM sleep
occur, the longer uninterrupted sleep is maintained.
Whereas NREM is thought to be more important
to the body, whereas REM sleep is more important
to the mind, although the two types cannot be
separated, keep in mind They're both essential
to your well -being, and they both are required.
During REM sleep, the brain is more active than
during in -REM sleep, hence dreaming and our
bodies becoming more relaxed as blood is concentrated
in the brain rather than in the muscles. So,
during REM sleep, the body is able to restore
mental and physical energy most efficiently,
making you more vibrant and active during the
day. Okay? The last half of this is waking. Okay?
Lots of changes occur in the body and mind when
we awake from sleep. These changes will vary
with the quality and duration of the sleep received.
Waking from early stages of sleep is different
from waking from a full uninterrupted quality
sleep when the body has time to actually completely
successfully complete the sleep cycle. When we
wake up, our heart rate, blood pressure, and
breathing all rise as does our body's temperature.
Various hormone levels change, notably cortisol.
Remember when we talked about cortisol? it's
the stress hormone, rises to enhance the feeling
of alertness in the morning. Our major internal
organs switch to wake mode and begin to function
optimally. This should be true for everybody,
but there are some people who have a hard time
even getting up. Okay? The waking process can
take a little time before we feel refreshed and
ready to go, and it's normal to feel groggy,
you know, for a little while after waking up
from a deep sleep. You know? There are many,
many things that we have to keep in mind when
worrying about our sleep schedule and whether
or not we're actually maintaining it. And keep
in mind that baby sleep schedules are a little
bit different. Okay? So with that, this completes
part one for sleep and why it's important and
what is sleep. And then next time I'm going to
cover the importance of sleep in more detail
because, well, you can never have... Too much
of a good thing is what they say, but that's
actually a lie. Too much sleep can actually be
dental medicine to you and not be helpful in
the slightest. We're going to cover why that
is in the next episode, okay? Enjoy your day
and have a great rest of your evening.