Talk to your doctor if you still can’t sleep well. Take a warm bath at least an hour before bed.Exercise regularly, but not right before bed.Here are some healthy habits that may help you get more deep sleep: It’s linked to health conditions like mood disorders, migraines, heart disease, and obesity.Ī loss of deep sleep raises your chances of: In general, poor quality sleep can take a toll on your mental and physical well-being. We also need more research to know exactly how CSF and deep sleep work together.
Deep sleep also gets rid of beta-amyloid, a protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Compared to when you’re awake, CSF helps clear out more waste that can hurt your cells. That’s the liquid that surrounds your brain and spinal cord. It leaves room for more cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to flow in and out. That sounds scary, but it isn’t a bad thing.
There’s also less blood flow to your brain. They’re an important part of how you learn and store memories. They get slower, longer, and follow a pattern. Your brain waves change during this sleep cycle.
With good quality sleep, you should feel less tired when you wake up. You might eat more because you’re hungrier.Įnergy levels. That means you won’t be able to use glucose, or sugar, as well. Studies show a lack of it can lower your insulin sensitivity. Deep sleep seems to be important for glucose regulation in adults. Experts think that’s so your body gets a chance to recover from the day. If you’re a kid, deep sleep will send out growth hormone to help your bones grow. That helps your body repair muscle and other tissue. Your pituitary gland sends out human growth hormone. It’s normal to see a 10%-20% dip.īone and muscle. Your heart rate slows, and you breathe at a slow and steady pace. That’s sometimes called your “rest and digest” network. Your parasympathetic nervous system kicks in. It’s also a cue from your internal body clock, or circadian rhythm, that it’s time to sleep.īlood pressure and heart rate. One theory is that this helps you conserve and restore energy. Here’s what happens during slow-wave sleep: Your body processes change depending on what stage of sleep you’re in. You’ll get most of it in the first half of the night. It’s also called N3 or slow-wave sleep (SWS). Your deepest sleep happens in stage 3 of NREM. You have two kinds of sleep: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM). A lack of restorative sleep raises your chances of infections, thinking and memory problems, and other health issues. Your breathing and heart rate go down, but your ability to fight germs and to form memories goes up.Įxperts are still figuring out exactly what deep sleep is for. But while you may be out like a light, some parts of your body are hard at work. During deep sleep, you pay less attention to the outside world.