Sleep can be a fickle friend at times. Everyone’s body needs sleep, but that doesn’t always mean it’s possible. What is your brain missing out on as you desperately attempt to drift into dreamland.
Researchers are beginning to believe that a regular sleep cycle goes through various stages and that each stage is for a specific breakdown and processing of particular information. Two stages commonly referred to are R.E.M. shallow sleep and slow-wave deep sleep.
Some scientists believe the R.E.M. (rapid eye movement) phase is the period where your brain attempts to place a filter over the your emotional memories, which is your brains way of labeling an emotional context and importance to the memory with details that may be in other areas of the brain.
The slow wave, deep period of sleep is the phase when your brain processes through intellectual memories. In one study performed in Germany, the participants remembered the smell of roses better when they smelled the scent during the day and during the slow wave phase of sleep. It is also when the body produces a high level of hormones thought to aid in tissue repair.
Sleep research has become even more relevant since 50 million Americans suffer from some form of sleep deprivation. If scientists can better understand the phases of sleep and their functions, they hope to better treat sleep-related problems.
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