Deep sleep is crucial for a person’s well being and good health. Normally the sleep architecture is divided into four stages. The first stage of sleep is light. The second stage is rapid eye movement sleep (REM) sleep in which most have experienced dreams.
The third and fourth stage is deep sleep.
Deep sleep is essential because it helps the muscles to repair and receive more blood supply. It also helps new tissue growth and hence it is essential for growing children. Deep sleep recharges your energy which you need for your next day work.
How to get deep sleep at night?
Women are known to have better amount of deep sleep than men. However, certain things in their life can have influence on their delta wave deep sleep. For example a woman may have disturbed sleep during her menstruation period, postpartum period, pregnancy etc. Deep sleep is especially important for those who suffer from chronic illness for repairing and replacing tissues like skin and bone.
Here are some important tips to ensure good amount of deep sleep: Practice good sleep hygiene, treat your diseases or sleep disorder, allocate adequate time to sleep at night, avoid bad lifestyle that destroys your sleep.
- Avoid bright light and other distractions: Sleep in dark room with very less light. Darkness will ensure you to sleep faster and longer. Avoid bright light and other objects of distractions such as mobile phones.
- Fix your bedtime: Keep consistent time of sleeping as this will help to get good amount of deep sleep. For example if you are sleeping at 10 pm, make it a point to sleep at this fixed time daily. Also you must sleep for at least 7 to 8 hours.
- Maintain right temperature in your bedroom: Maintain correct temperature in your bedroom to prevent interruption in your sleep at night. If your bedroom temperature is too hot or too cold which may not suit your body, you will probably have difficulty in falling asleep.
- No exercise or workout two hours before sleeping.
- Avoid eating heavy meal before bedtime.
- Avoid alcohol and caffeinated products: You may find difficult to sleep soundly, especially your deep sleep can get disturbed if you drink alcohol or drink caffeinated products close to your bedtime.
- Use comfortable mattress and pillow: To get better sleep, sleep on a comfortable mattress.
- Reduce long naps during day: Avoid napping for too long during afternoon. It can negatively affect your nighttime sleep.
- Take natural melatonin supplement: Milk contains melatonin, a substance prepared naturally in the body to induce sleep. Drink one glass of warm milk before sleeping.