For many of us it's one of our favourite pastimes, while others live by the motto: "I'll sleep when I'm dead". But did you know that you spend around a third of your life asleep?
If you now think that's madness, nobody can need that much sleep, you're wrong! There are many reasons why we need sleep. Sleep strengthens the immune system, makes us more productive, gets wound healing going and helps with muscle recovery. Find out how good sleep can affect your body and what you can do for better sleep stages.
Why do we sleep?
Now to the fundamental question: why do we sleep? Science has been studying sleep for many years. The earlier assumption that it is a pure rest phase can now be refuted. Today we know that the brain in particular needs sleep to process the many impressions taken in while awake. How exactly the brain recovers over the sleep cycle is explained below.
Have you ever wondered why we get tired when it gets dark and become fit and lively again as soon as we see daylight? It has to do with the melatonin level in your body. The hormone is responsible for the day-night rhythm and is mainly produced in the pineal gland in the brain. The retina makes sure the hormone is released. When daylight hits your eyes, production is inhibited, but when your eyes are in the dark, production of the hormone is kicked off.
Melatonin can dock onto the blood vessels in the brain and onto some cells of the immune system. The messenger substance sends the body the signal that it's now time to rest. It lowers blood pressure and reduces energy consumption. The hormone also gets the immune system going, lowers body temperature and influences both the sex hormones and learning in memory.
Did you know that your melatonin level at night is up to twelve times higher than during the day?
What happens while we sleep?
As already mentioned, there is still a lot for science to explore when it comes to human sleep. But today we already know that the different sleep stages affect our brain, our cardiovascular system, our immune system, our muscles, our hormones and our metabolism.
4 sleep stages
While we sleep, we go through four sleep stages. How often we go through the four stages depends on how long we sleep. The length of the individual sleep stages also differs and can change over the course of the sleep cycle. During the four stages, our body goes through different recovery processes.
The falling-asleep stage
In the falling-asleep stage, which sets in with the release of melatonin, blood pressure drops, our breathing becomes shallower and our brain waves slow down. Our muscle activity also slowly decreases, which can lead to a feeling of falling and the muscles in our arms and legs suddenly twitching. The falling-asleep stage can last up to 15 minutes.
The light sleep stage
After the falling-asleep stage comes the light sleep stage. We spend almost half of our sleep in it. During this time, which can last around 30-60 minutes at a stretch, our body comes to rest. Our brain activity continues to decrease and our body temperature drops slightly. Both our eyes and our muscles almost completely relax in this stage. In our brain, a process begins that processes the experiences of the day.
In the light sleep stage, growth hormones are released. While in children it promotes growth, in adults it makes sure that the cells in our bones, muscles and internal organs recover and renew themselves. That's why sleep also supports the process of wound healing.
The deep sleep stage
The deep sleep stage that follows is the most restorative and therefore the most important sleep stage. In it we come to rest and our muscle and brain activity are reduced to a minimum. While some brain areas are deactivated in this state, the area that controls motor function remains active. This can occasionally lead to sleepwalking and sleep talking. The first deep sleep stage of our sleep cycle can last up to 60 minutes. Children in particular spend a large share of their sleep in the deep sleep stage.
The dream stage
While the deep sleep stage leads more to physical recovery, the fourth sleep stage, the dream stage, provides mental recovery. In the dream stage, also called REM stage (rapid eye movement stage), our brain activity rises and our dreams become more intense. Under our eyelids, our eyes begin to move rapidly. Researchers assume that both information and emotional impressions are processed in the REM stage. Although our brain activity increases in this stage and both our blood pressure and our breathing rise, our muscles relax almost completely. This is due to a protective mechanism of our body, which makes us unable to move so that we don't act out our dreams. The REM stage is relatively short at the beginning of the sleep cycle and gets longer towards the end. We can wake up from it more easily than from the deep sleep stage.
How much sleep do you need?
As you now know, good sleep makes sure our brain can process the impressions of the day and our muscles can recover. Sleep also kicks metabolic processes into gear and strengthens the immune system. While we sleep, there are more antibodies in our blood than when we're awake. That is also one reason why sleep is especially important when you're unwell.
If, on the other hand, we deprive our body of sleep, it reduces our performance, our muscles can't recover and therefore can't grow, and our metabolism suffers too.
Sufficient sleep stages are therefore immensely important. How long a person should sleep can't be defined exactly, because there are differences between short and long sleepers. As a rule of thumb, though, 7-8 hours per night make a good amount of sleep. If you're productive during the day and can work for several hours at a stretch without feeling tired, you can assume you've found your personal sleep quota.
Conclusion: tips for good sleep
We know that the impressions of the day, a full diary or a lack of routines can affect sleep quality. In stressful phases, we often can't unwind in the evening or toss and turn and our thoughts start to race. But as you've learned today, a good amount of sleep is hugely important if we want to perform at our best again the next day.
There's quite a lot you can do to find calm even in stressful phases. Maybe you already guess what's coming now. Because our most important credo is routines. Just as important as your morning routine is your evening routine. With fixed habits, your brain manages to calm down and switch off. One option, for example, is to meditate or fit in a yoga session before bed to clear your head. By the way, you'll also find some powerful yoga sessions and relaxing meditations in our frank app!
Alternatively, you can try a delicious cup of warm frank. tea. Enjoy a cup of our Calm Down Tea before bed, for example. Switch off your devices and focus just on yourself and the experiences of the day.
But we offer much more than teas and juice cleanses. Do you already know our shot cleanse? While our ginger shots Wake Up Call and Fast Lane perk you up, Lavender Skies with its mild note provides a gentle end to the day. Fruity raspberry, the taste of lavender and a touch of ashwagandha carry you off to the land of dreams.
