Jasz
VIP Contributor
Everyone loves naps. But not everyone knows how naps work and how to make them work for you. When you nap, your body has to go through cycles of sleep in order to feel rested. A full sleep cycle takes about 90 minutes and consists of 5 stages:
1. Stage 1: This is the lightest stage of sleep. It only lasts a couple of minutes and you can be woken easily from this stage, feeling as if you haven't slept at all.
2. Stage 2: Your brain waves start to slow down and your body temperature drops. You're still very much awake during this stage.
3. Stage 3: You reach deep sleep here; it's harder to wake up out of this stage now, but if you do, you'll feel groggy and disoriented for a while because the sleep hasn't had time to fully take effect.
4. Stage 4: This is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, where your brain starts processing information faster than ever before (that's why dreams occur during this stage). After reaching REM, your body will cycle back through stages 3, 2, and 1 before starting the cycle over again with stage 3.
5. Stage 5: This is the final lap aftter cycling through the first 4.
1. Stage 1: This is the lightest stage of sleep. It only lasts a couple of minutes and you can be woken easily from this stage, feeling as if you haven't slept at all.
2. Stage 2: Your brain waves start to slow down and your body temperature drops. You're still very much awake during this stage.
3. Stage 3: You reach deep sleep here; it's harder to wake up out of this stage now, but if you do, you'll feel groggy and disoriented for a while because the sleep hasn't had time to fully take effect.
4. Stage 4: This is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, where your brain starts processing information faster than ever before (that's why dreams occur during this stage). After reaching REM, your body will cycle back through stages 3, 2, and 1 before starting the cycle over again with stage 3.
5. Stage 5: This is the final lap aftter cycling through the first 4.