Understanding REM And Deep Sleep For Better Health

How much sleep should a person get?

Anytime we talk about stress, weight loss, or high blood pressure, someone will bring up the importance of sleep. As a result, there’s a cottage industry around sleep aids, apps, and techniques to help everyone get more sleep.

Tracking your sleep is only helpful if you actually understand what the numbers mean, and experts say there are three key sleep metrics worth focusing on.

1. Pay attention to how much REM and deep sleep you’re getting. The ideal ranges are about 1.5 to 2.5 hours of REM and 1 to 2 hours of deep sleep a night. While a sleep study or brainwave scan is the only way to positively measure REM sleep, even an app on your phone or wearable bio-tracking device can give you a measurement that is better than nothing.
2. How many times do you wake up each night? They matter - frequent wake-ups can leave you tired and might point to bad sleep habits. Nighttime wake-ups can vary from very quick breaks to having to use the restroom (that’s me – every night at 3:30. It’s terrible when you have to wake up at 4:15 am).
3. Finally, compare your time in bed to your actual time asleep. How long do you spend scrolling on your phone, watching TV, or reading books and magazines?

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While a sleep study will give the most accurate answers to these questions, there are many free apps and wearable tech that will give you a starting point. I have a free app that tracks how long it takes me to go to sleep, how many hours I spend in deep and light sleep, and records sounds I make (or, more often, sounds my dogs make). It’s not really accurate, but it gives a baseline of how I’m sleeping every night – what I do with that information is up to me.

Happy sleeping!