Sleep
Sleep is part of a person’s daily activity cycle. There are several
different stages of sleep, and they too occur in cycles. If you are an average
sleeper, your sleep cycle is as follows. When you first drift off into slumber,
your eyes will roll about a bit, your temperature will drop slightly, your
muscles will relax, and your breathing will slow and become quite regular. Your
brain waves slow and become quite regular. That is stage 1 sleep. For the next
half hour or so, as you relax more and more, you will drift down through stage 2
and stage 3 sleep. The lower your stage of sleep, the slower your brain waves
will be. Then about 40 to 69 minutes after you lose consciousness you will have
reached the deepest sleep of all. Your brain will show the large slow waves that
axe known as the delta rhythm. This is stage 4 sleep. You do not
remain at this deep fourth stage all night long, but instead about 80 minutes
after you fall into slumber, your brain activity level will increase again
slightly. The delta rhythm will disappear, to be replaced by the activity
pattern of brain waves. Your eyes will begin to dart around under your closed
eyelids as if you were looking at something occurring in front of you. This
period of rapid eye movement lasts for some 8 to 15 minutes and is called REM
sleep. It is during REM sleep period, your body will soon relax again, your
breathing will slip gently back from stage 1 to stage 4 sleep.
Sleep is part of a person’s daily activity cycle. There are (46)
different stages of sleep, and they too occur in cycles. At the first
stage, your (47) drift off into slumber, your eyes will roll
about a bit, your muscles will relax. As you (48) more and.
more, you will drift down through stage 2 and stage 3 sleep. After you lose
(49) you will have reached the deepest sleep of all. That is
the (50) step.