Calculating sleep cycles entails figuring out the length and timing of the distinct phases of sleep an individual experiences all through the night time. These phases, sometimes repeating in cycles of roughly 90 minutes, embody mild sleep, deep sleep, and fast eye motion (REM) sleep. Understanding these patterns will be achieved by numerous strategies, together with sleep diaries, actigraphy (wrist-worn motion sensors), and polysomnography (sleep research performed in a laboratory setting). As an illustration, an actigraph may reveal that an individual spends a median of 20 minutes in REM sleep throughout every cycle.
Optimizing sleep timing based mostly on these cyclical patterns can result in extra restful and restorative sleep. Waking up throughout lighter sleep phases could make one really feel extra refreshed, whereas interrupting deep sleep may end up in grogginess. This data has sensible purposes in scheduling alarms, planning naps, and addressing sleep disturbances. Traditionally, understanding sleep cycles developed alongside broader developments in sleep science all through the twentieth century, evolving from preliminary electroencephalography (EEG) observations to extra subtle monitoring applied sciences and analytical approaches.
