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What is Deep Sleep?
Many people wonder which is the most important stage of sleep. The answer is not that simple, as each stage of sleep has its specific benefits and the balance of sleep stages is important. Deep sleep is when your brain activity and body waves slow down. As the name suggests, when you're deep into your sleep, it makes it hard to wake up from. Deep sleep is essential to your health and recovery. It helps restore and repair your mind and body.
There are five stages of sleep, the first 3 stages are non-rapid eye movement sleep, deep sleep is experienced in the third stage, and the final stage of sleep is REM, or rapid eye movement, sleep.
The Benefits of Deep Sleep
Deep sleep or slow-wave sleep helps facilitate brain function. Without deep sleep, it would be hard to store memory in our brains. This is crucial to our health since we need to incorporate new ideas, skills, and experiences in our brains to learn and develop. Another advantage of deep sleep is helping balance out hormones. Breathing and heart rate slows down; thus, you feel more relaxed as your body self-regulates.
The Functions of Deep Sleep
We need deep sleep since it triggers the repairing necessary for our body and brain. When you are able to sleep properly, it stimulates mental activity and the physical strength necessary to human function. Imagine if someone lost this ability, it would be hard to remember or learn new things.
Back Pain Affecting Deep Sleep
Daily aches and pains or more severe long-term injuries or ailments can negatively impact our ability to get quality sleep or reach deep sleep. So how does one achieve this deep sleep phase if they are experiencing back pain and discomfort that keeps them awake at night? Back pain could be temporary or long-term, depending on the cause. Here are some things you could do to help attain deep sleep, even with back pain issues.
- Seek a healthcare professional’s advice. Depending on the cause, a doctor will be able to better understand how to treat your back pain and advise on the best course of action to ease the pain.
- You can also improve your sleep with quality mattresses and pillows. It’s stressful enough to have some aches. Lessen this by making sure you have supportive pillows and the right mattress for your body form, sleep position, and support needs.
- In some instances, physical or massage therapy can help relax and release tensions or build strength in areas that support your back.
- You could also try meditation and breathing exercises at home, while they may not it might not directly take the pain away, they may help relax your body and lessen the discomfort - allowing you to fall asleep easier and stay asleep longer.
- Experiment with different sleeping positions to get the best one that relieves back pain.
Get more Deep Sleep
- Exercising: You can try going for walks, jogging in the morning, or doing yoga. Exercise helps promote chemicals that make us feel good and keep us in shape. As we exert energy during exercise in the day, our body will be better prepared for the night and help facilitate better sleep.
- Scheduling your sleep: To get at least 7-9 hours of sleep, you need to make sure you get to sleep on time. Maintaining a sporadic sleep schedule or poor sleep routine will lessen your chances of getting deep sleep. Keeping in mind, a routine sleep schedule will signal your body when it’s time to go to bed and begin internal preparations for sleep.
- Getting Better Pillows: The more relaxed and comfortable you feel, the quicker you could fall asleep and begin cycling through the critical sleep stages that you need, including deep sleep. Help your body fall asleep faster by changing to better quality pillows that support your sleeping position.
- Investing in a quality mattress: It may be costly now, but the right mattress will give you better sleep at night and better health long-term. Observe which mattress textures and firmness help you fall asleep faster and support staying asleep throughout the night. Ensure that the mattress you choose adapts for your primary sleeping position and body form.
- Eating light before bedtime: Too much food and drink intake at night will make it harder to sleep.
- Listening to pink noise: Research suggests that random low-frequency sounds enhance deep sleep.
- Avoiding coffee or caffeinated drinks: It’s no secret that caffeine can boost our energy and keep us awake. So having a cup of coffee before you sleep will have a contrary effect. Caffeine’s impact on the body can live for many hours beyond when you drink the beverage.
Our body needs enough rest and sleep to perform daily tasks and activities. It is essential to get deep sleep to maintain our brain activity and our bodies restored. However, various reasons could cause someone not to get enough sleep. Keeping track of your daily activities, or maintaining a sleep journal, can help you better understand why and how you feel tired and sleepy. Since deep sleep is one of the most critical stages of sleep, you should maintain good sleeping habits, so you can enjoy the benefits it has to offer.
Founded in 2016, Bryte is the leading Restorative Sleep Technology™ platform backed by sleep science and powered by AI.
Bryte’s Restorative Sleep Technology is purpose-designed to actively nurture natural, more restorative sleep. Bryte RebalancingTM sensor monitor for pressure imbalances as you shift throughout the night and relieve any pressure points to eliminate wake events and foster more restorative, unbroken sleep. An embedded sensory network within the mattress detects biometrics such as heart rate and breathing patterns to identify when a sleeper enters the first stage of sleep. Bryte’s climate system then triggers cooling features to lower the body's core temperature and gently guide sleepers through an optimal balance of sleep stages.
The Restorative Bed™ uses science-backed technology to help you achieve restorative sleep by helping you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake feeling more restored. Bryte’s purpose-built software can help you analyze your sleep quality as well. Check out our mattresses and get the sleep you deserve every night. For more information, visit Bryte.com.
