What is REM sleep and how to measure it?

REM sleep can be considered one of the 4 main stages of sleep (light sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep and wakefulness) in humans. It means sleeping with rapid eye movement. This stage of sleep is considered a kind of mental repair, because during it the brain transforms short-term memories into long-term memories. It is interesting to know that your brain is very active during REM sleep and you can see the most vivid dreams during this time. But why is this stage of sleep important and how can it be measured during the day and night?

• Getting to know sleep stages
• Why REM sleep ) is important?
• What is the standard amount of REM sleep for a healthy person?
• Effects of lack of REM sleep in people
• How to have more REM sleep ?
• Do creatures other than humans also experience REM sleep?
• Introduction of the most popular sleep analysis applications
• Introduction of the most accurate smart bands on the market for monitoring different stages of sleep
• Introducing the most accurate smart watches on the market for monitoring sleep stages and health

Getting to know sleep stages

Sleep with Rapid eye movement (REM) is a stage of sleep associated with dreaming and memory consolidation. REM sleep was first discovered in the 1950s when scientists were studying sleeping babies. In fact, these researchers noticed that during certain periods, the eyes of babies move quickly from one side to the other. For this reason, this type of sleep is also known as rapid eye movement sleep.

People often mistakenly think that REM sleep and deep sleep (which is also called slow wave sleep) They are one thing, which is a completely wrong idea. In fact, deep sleep and REM stages are considered as very different stages. Deep sleep is a physical restorative stage, meaning that the body's muscles and cells begin to repair themselves. The natural cycle of this type of sleep is after light sleep and before REM sleep, and unlike REM sleep where your heart rate and breathing increase, these two factors decrease during deep sleep.

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Why is REM sleep important?

One of the most important reasons for the importance of this stage of sleep It is during that new learning per day that is deposited into your long-term memory. On the other hand, this type of sleep helps athletes who are busy with various exercises during the day to improve their skills. Therefore, not getting enough sleep at night can prevent this group of people from seeing the benefits of various exercises during the day. There is also research that shows that when your REM sleep time is not enough, you will have trouble remembering the things you learned before sleep.

Generally, the physiological changes that occur during the REM sleep stage is as follows:

• Eyes move back and forth rapidly behind closed eyelids.
• Heart rate and blood pressure are about the same as when you are awake. , increases.
• The breathing rate increases and becomes irregular.
• The brain consumes more oxygen and its activity increases significantly. Even the face and body parts may move!

In order to better understand this type of sleep, we show you the diagram below that shows the brain waves during REM and non-REM sleep. These brain waves have been measured by the method (Electroencephalography) which is called EEG for short.

The graph above shows an image of brain waves from EEG when a person is awake, in REM and non-REM sleep. As it is known, there is a similarity between the waves in REM sleep and wakefulness.

As it is clear in the diagram above, your brain during sleep with rapid eye movements (REM) is almost as much as when it is awake. It is active, which is why most of the dreaming happens at this time. As a precautionary measure, at this stage, a part of the brain sometimes sends signals to immobilize the arms and legs to prevent any unreasonable movement of the body (disordered behavior during sleep, such as jumping or walking!). It is interesting to know that REM sleep is associated with a decrease in serotonin in the brain; Therefore, this stage starts earlier in depressed people than other people.

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What is the standard amount of REM sleep for a healthy person?

On average, most people Usually, within 90 minutes after falling asleep, they enter the REM sleep state, and this period of REM only lasts about 10 minutes. On average, a person goes through 3 to 5 REM cycles every night, and each cycle increases with the duration of falling asleep. Even the last cycle of this type of sleep may last for almost an hour.

In general, it is standard for healthy adults to spend about 20-25% of their sleep time in the REM stage. This means that if you sleep 7-8 hours a day, about 90 minutes should be in the RAM phase. The normal amount of REM sleep decreases with age, but it is always present in our sleep cycle from infancy (when more than 50% of total sleep time may be in the REM stage) to adulthood.

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Effects of lack of REM sleep in people

As mentioned before, not having enough REM sleep can affect your brain's ability to learn and Create new memories negatively affect. In addition, since most REM sleep occurs at the end of the night (after deep sleep, which is the priority of the brain and body during sleep), a lack of it can be a sign of chronic sleep deprivation with increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, dementia Intelligence, depression, cardiovascular diseases and cancer are related. In addition to these other cases, studies show that lack of this type of sleep can be a cause of migraine.

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How does REM sleep ) should we have more?

In general, anything that can be done to improve your habits and behaviors for a better and more quality sleep can affect the quality of different stages of sleep, including REM sleep. Therefore, in addition to studying about things that can increase the quality of sleep, you should keep in mind that the most important factor in increasing the quality of sleep is consistency in sleeping. This means going to bed and waking up at a specific time of the night.

Your body works more efficiently when it is on a regular schedule, and this is the case with sleep and habits. It is also true. In this regard, the analysis of the sleep data of 25,000 people shows that the amount of night sleep in the REM phase has increased significantly, taking into account certain hours for sleeping during 4 days. Therefore, it improves the temporal stability of RAM sleep.

It is quite clear that consistency in going to sleep improves the amount of REM sleep per hour for most people.

The second important thing to keep in mind is to avoid drinking alcoholic beverages before going to bed. Because when the body is forced to process alcohol during sleep, it has trouble getting past the stage of light sleep and entering a deeper stage.

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Do creatures other than humans also experience REM sleep?

It is interesting to know that various species based on land, including some mammals, some reptiles and most birds can experience REM sleep; Although this type of sleep can look different depending on the species. For example, owls do not experience rapid eye movements during REM sleep because these creatures cannot move their pupils. Also, some birds lose their muscle strength only in certain areas such as the neck during this stage of sleep, so the animal's head rests while standing on one leg.

• Spiders Jumpers experience a stage of sleep called REM!
• Why do we dream?

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Introduction of the most popular sleep analysis apps

In general, you should know that according to Wirecutter's claim, despite more than a hundred hours of research, including interviews with eight sleep scientists and a months-long review of four popular sleep monitoring apps We must admit that no application has the ability to monitor sleep objectively and similar to what happens in laboratories. But with the mobile apps we recommend in the section below, you can collect information about your sleep trends and patterns, which may help you improve your sleep over time.

1. SleepScore and SleepCycle applications

In the same direction, for people who want a simple user interface with an understandable visual design "SleepScore" application, which is more compatible with iOS phones, and "SleepCycle" which is compatible with Android models, are recommended.

These applications allow you to It allows you to set your sleep goals and according to the same goals, it provides practical recommendations to achieve the goals. It also provides more accurate data monitoring than other programs. Smart alarm is another feature of these applications that can wake you up slowly, so you will feel less confused after waking up. It should be noted that the free version of these applications comes with general sleep recommendations and records your sleep information for seven days.

2. Better sleep free application

The way this program works is simple, but it is one of the most different and interesting mechanisms in mobile applications, because you only need to place your smartphone on a flat surface and calibrate it, then Place the phone under your pillow while it is connected to the charger. After doing these things, you can sleep safely and analyze and monitor your sleep the next morning. You can download the Better sleep application for free for iOS and Android operating systems and plan better sleep.

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Introduction of the most accurate smart wristbands on the market for monitoring different stages of sleep

If you are among the fans of smart watches and are interested, pay attention According to what we said, monitor your sleep, choosing and buying smart bands can be a more attractive procedure, because these products are marketed at reasonable prices. In this regard, we introduce to you 3 models of the most popular wristbands in the market, which can analyze the different stages of sleep well.

1. Xiaomi MI Band 6 smart wristband

Xiaomi wristbands are always among the best-selling products in the market and this is Recently, MI Band Xiaomi 7 has also been unveiled. But in this episode, we are interested in introducing you to Xiaomi MI Band 6. Support for 24-hour heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen measurement and sleep quality monitoring are just some of the attractive features of this wristband. Water resistance up to 50 meters, stress monitoring, very light weight of about 12 grams and support for the latest Bluetooth version are among other features of this product. Also, the display of this product has been increased by 50% compared to the previous generations of this series, which naturally makes the experience of working with it easier. It is interesting to know that this type of smart wristband also supports Farsi language and can provide you with accurate and good information about your physical condition and sleep stages through the Zepp Life software.

2 . Honor Band 6 NFC Smart Wristband

Honor Band 6 NFC Smart Wristband is a product of Huawei. It has a narrow border to be recognized as a smart watch and a health wristband. This type of product, like the previous product, is completely tactile and has significant features such as accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate monitoring, resistance up to 50 meters underwater, blood oxygen level measurement, very accurate sleep monitoring and analysis along with many other features. Also, Honor Band 6 has a 1.48-inch display with an elongated appearance, which offers you a clear image thanks to the AMOLED panel and the resolution of 194 x 368 pixels. This type of wristband can check 10 types of sports activities and record your records, and in addition, it has the ability to automatically detect 6 types of sports, including running, treadmill, walking, etc.

3 . Samsung Galaxy Fit2 Smart Wristband

One of the reliable and well-made products from the Samsung brand, Samsung Smart Wristband The Galaxy Fit2 model is one of the most accurate and efficient options for analyzing daily activity and sleep. This type of smart wristband has attractive features such as resistance to water and scratches, various sensors (gyro, accelerometer, heart rate counter and proximity with the possibility of understanding different modes), touch screen with AMOLED panel and GPS. S and its screen resolution reaches 126 x 294 pixels. Also, monitoring sleep and stress, automatic tracking of sports activities, notification of received messages and calls, ability to control music and a world of diverse wallpapers is one of the good-priced choices to buy from SafirSoft.

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Introducing the most accurate smart watches on the market for monitoring sleep and health stages

Until a few years ago, smart watches were considered useless as wearables that They are only decorative and buying them is a waste of money. But today this view has completely changed and the passage of years has shown that smart watches have come to stay with us as an essential member. In recent years, these smart products have been accompanied by more advanced features such as conversation, health and sleep monitoring, heart rate measurement, breathing, stress and tracking with GPS. we introduce to you.

1. Samsung Galaxy Watch4 44mm silicone strap smart watch Watch 4 is one of the most attractive products to buy due to Google's WearOS operating system and Samsung's special skin design, One UI Watch 3. Among the features of this smart watch model are things like super AMOLED technology in the display, resolution of 450 x 450 pixels, the presence of various sensors including accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer and heart rate measurement, blood sugar and blood pressure measurement, very easy user interface and weight of 30 Garami pointed out.

Besides these specifications, it might be interesting for you to know that this Samsung wearable gadget has features such as user fall detection, heart rate recording and body composition analysis based on 5 BMI factors. It monitors the amount of oxygen during sleep, the amount of muscle and fat, the amount of water in the body, and the body's metabolism. Therefore, we suggest the purchase of this smart watch model to all people in different age ranges.

View the product in SafirSoft

2. Huawei Smart Watch Model GT 3 42mm Stainless Steel Band It is one of the best-selling smart watch models, which, in addition to normal use for all people, is considered a professional and beautiful product for athletes. 1.32 inch screen, 466 x 466 resolution, 353 pixel density, blood oxygen measurement capability and location are among the important and accurate features of this product, which makes it a great purchase value. A very suitable battery with a capacity of 292 mAh has made this watch to be with you for days for every 100% charge.

Apart from the aforementioned sports capabilities such as the ability to measure blood oxygen levels and location. Precise activity route with GPS, this smart watch has a quality display that uses automatic light adjustment. Therefore, we recommend that you buy the Huawei GT 3 42mm smart watch for a professional companion.

View the product in SafirSoft

3. Series 8 Aluminum 45mm Apple Smart Watch Apple is the Series 8 Aluminum 45mm model, which comes with specifications such as Retina LTPO OLED color display, 1.9-inch touch screen size, direct conversation capability, dual-core processor, waterproof, and lithium-ion battery. This watch is suitable for daily, formal and sports activities and besides various features, it also has a very accurate and approved sleep monitoring capability. The sensors of this type of smart watch include altimeter, gyroscope, blood oxygen measurement (SPO2), body temperature measurement, heart rate counter, barometer, and compass, and its battery life reaches 18 hours in case of continuous use. .

View the product in SafirSoft

Source: WHOOP