Are You Getting Enough REM Sleep? The Answer May Surprise You

REM sleep is an acronym for "rapid eye movement" sleep. It's one of the most mysterious and least understood stages of your nightly sleep cycle. One thing sleep experts do know, however, is that REM sleep is very important. Just how important, you ask? Well, you're about to find out. This special report is going to teach you everything you need to know about REM sleep, including how to get more of it. The better you are at making sure you get enough REM sleep, the better your overall health and wellness will be.

Defining REM Sleep

The leading theory is that the rapid eye movement which defines REM sleep happens as your brain experiences dreams. So what, exactly, is happening in your brain and your body when dreaming? For starters, you are literally paralyzed. The scientific term for this specific type of paralysis is called atonia. Your brain releases a special hormone which makes your muscles go limp so that you do not physically act out any dreams you are having while unconscious. How do we know this? Scientists recently experimented on animals (cats, specifically) whose brains did not possess the ability to put them into atonia while sleeping. Researchers were then mystified to observe the animals, although asleep, act out normal behaviors like hunting and prowling. Humans with a similar neurological condition have been known to also physically act out whatever it is they're dreaming about.

Your brain stays busy while engaged in REM sleep, too. In fact, it stays very busy. In some ways, the brain is busier during REM sleep then it is while you are conscious during the day. High frequency beta waves are emitted by your brain during REM sleep, but they are also emitted at similar levels during wakefulness. The brain also emits beta and alpha waves during REM sleep, too. The fact that there is so much activity going on in the brain during this part of your sleep cycle has earned REM sleep another nickname: paradoxical sleep.

Why Does the Brain (and the Body) Need REM Sleep?

During REM sleep, not only is the brain more active in general then at any other point in your sleep cycle, but there are certain regions of the brain that are especially hyperactive even compared to when you are consciously accessing them while awake. Most scientists believe that the brain processes a great deal of information during this part of the sleep cycle. In a way, the rapid movement of your eyes is almost like the HDD indicator light on a computer; it's a signal that your brain is doing some serious work.

Unlike a computer, however, our indicators don't start whirring at a thousand miles an hour when we first boot up in the morning; rather, the human brain processes information gathered during the day while it sleeps. It consolidates your important short-term memories and stores them long term in your neurons. REM sleep is especially important for knowledge. If you learn something new on a particular day, the complexity of that task and the importance of that knowledge mean that your brain will need to spend more time in REM sleep in order to process it optimally.

The younger you are, the more important REM sleep is. From infants to teenagers, younger humans spend more time in REM sleep than at almost any other point in their lives. Adults and the elderly, conversely, spend less. Another aspect of REM sleep is the "use it or lose it" phenomenon; REM sleep restructures your brain so that the parts of it you use more often get reinforced, while the neurological connections you don't use get pruned like a bonsai tree. This may explain why older individuals tend to be so stubbornly stuck in their ways.

REM Sleep Deficiency and Brain Health

If you can't remember dreaming at night, or if you feel tired all the time no matter how much sleep you get, you are likely deficient in REM sleep. Not getting enough REM sleep, in addition to giving you memory problems, can have very negative impacts on your physical and emotional health, Such as:

• Migraines
• Grogginess upon waking
• All day fatigue
• Weight gain
• Rebound REM sleep
• Delirium tremens
• Anxiety
• Decreased emotional coping skills

Despite how important REM sleep is, your brain often sacrifices that portion of your sleep cycle first when you are in less than optimal health. This is very unfortunate, because it prevents your brain from clearing away beta-amyloid plaques. These plaques are the culprit behind age-related brain diseases like parkinson's and alzheimer's. Furthermore, specific drugs like alcohol or benzodiazepines prevent your brain from entering REM sleep; but if you go for too long without REM sleep, your brain will force it upon you, whether you like it or not. You may experience rebound sleep, which is a sleep cycle that dedicates substantially more time to REM sleep and neglects other important stages in your sleep cycle. In very extreme cases, your conscious mind will slip into REM sleep and experience terrifying dreams, temporary psychosis, delusions, and muscle spasms. This is known as delirium tremens. It's most common among people who are withdrawing from depressive substances, but can occur for other reasons, as well.

How to Get More REM Sleep

Unfortunately, many of the drugs which are designed to alleviate our most common sleep problems (anxiety, nightly restlessness, etc) are also the worst drugs to take if you want to increase your REM sleep. Things like alcohol, benzos, antihistamines, and certain types of common antidepressants can interfere with REM sleep. Even the THC in cannabis is thought to interfere with the process.

Getting the most natural sleep you possibly can is one of the best ways to make sure you get the REM sleep you need to stay healthy. Obviously, this is much easier said than done. Stress, anxiety, a lack of melatonin due to blue light exposure, and an inhospitable sleeping environment can all keep you awake when you should be sleeping. Good sleep hygiene practices will help alleviate the majority of these problems; but if you're still struggling, then we strongly suggest you reach out for a box of Avinol PM. The melatonin, along with the natural botanical extracts in the formula will give your brain and body exactly what it needs to get the most restful, natural sleep possible. So when you really want to have the sweetest dreams, let Avinol do all the hard work for you.