Is Your Teen Sleeping Enough
Sleep is a necessity and for the body and mind to function optimally, a minimum number of hours are required every night. At different times of our lives, the need changes. So let’s first understand the distinct stages of sleep and what impact it has on our body and mind. Stages of Sleep. There are five stages of sleep. The Non-REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage has four levels where in the first stage, you move from being awake to the light sleep phase; this is the stage when one can be awakened quickly. During the second stage, our eye movement’s stop and the brain waves slow down. In stage 3, brain waves become extremely slow but are interspersed with smaller but faster waves. The stage four sleeps is almost dominated by Delta waves or slow waves sleep. It is very difficult to wake someone during stages 3 and 4, which together are the deep sleep stages. There is no eye movement or muscle activity during this stage. Then comes the fifth stage which is the Rapid Eye Movement or