What are the different stages of sleep?

Video Overview

What are the different stages of sleep? Answer: The different stages of sleep are awake, non-REM stages 1, 2, and 3, and REM sleep. When we first go to bed, we're awake. Then we fall asleep in stage 1 sleep, which is very light sleep. If we wake up at stage 1, we don't even think we were asleep. We then transition to stage 2, and then stage 3. Stage 3 is the deep, body-restoring, growth hormone-producing, delta sleep that we think of as our best sleep. From deep sleep, we'll transition to stage 1, back to REM sleep, awake for a minute or two. This entire cycle takes 60 to 90 minutes. We will repeat this for four or five or six times during the night. Somebody who has slept for eight hours and says I never wake up is wrong. The normal person will fall asleep; go to deep, light, REM, awake, deep, light, REM, awake, deep, light, REM, awake about every 60 to 90 minutes. When a person is waking up every 60 to 90 minutes, then stays awake for more than two or three minutes, they remember they were awake, and think that they have an issue. One of the most important things we do is that we educate our patients that after waking up about every 90 minutes, that they're actually normal and we want to help them transition back to sleep more easily.