Light sleep (daytime naps) is critical to our health, even if we don’t hear it all the time, and even short naps can improve your cognitive performance.
While many people are familiar with reports of the benefits of deep sleep or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the benefits of light sleep are less known.
Sleep is divided into five stages – wakefulness, N1, N2, N3 and REM – and each stage is deeper than the previous one.
Light sleep can refer to stages N1, N2, or both, and accounts for about half of all sleep.
Dr. Chester Wu, MD, medical columnist for Rise Science, explains the benefits of light sleep.
What happens during light sleep?
“Light sleep is like a transition between wakefulness and deeper stages of sleep,” explains Dr. Wu. “It allows the body and mind to slow down and prepare for deep sleep and REM sleep, which are critical for physical and mental recovery. During light sleep, heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature decrease, allowing your body to conserve energy and devote more resources to recovery.”
Along with this widespread decline in energy, there are also bursts of brain activity called “sleep spindles” that are not fully understood, but scientists believe they may play a role in memory formation and consolidation.
What are the benefits of light sleep?
As mentioned earlier, REM sleep is considered the most beneficial stage of sleep.
Without diminishing this, Dr. Wu explained that light sleep itself has significant benefits. “Light sleep is critical to health and well-being,” he said.
While REM sleep is often associated with memory consolidation, recent research suggests that light sleep also plays a role in this process, especially in improving motor memory — the memory of how to perform physical tasks.
In addition, he says, studies show that “short periods of sleep, such as naps, can increase alertness and cognitive performance.”
Dr. Wu also noted that instead of “light sleep,” Apple uses the term “basic sleep” when monitoring sleep.
How much light sleep do you need?
Wu explained that the amount of light sleep we need varies from person to person and from day to day.
He said: “Healthy sleep will include all stages of sleep depending on your needs – our brain improves at night depending on factors such as our health and whether we are sleep deprived. To get enough sleep at any stage of sleep, we do everything What we can do is prioritize getting enough natural sleep through healthy sleep habits, rather than just focusing on increasing or decreasing the time we spend in a particular sleep phase.
Source: Daily Mail
