By: MICHELLE PARK
Staff Write
There are times when one feels tired right after waking up in the morning. However, strangely, right after waking up is more tired than before going to sleep. In addition, when one only takes a nap for only 10 to 20 minutes, one will have experienced waking up in a refreshing mood.
It is necessary to understand sleep in order to understand the irony of being tired after a long sleep and feeling refreshed after a short sleep. Sleep is not simply a process of sleeping and waking up. There are five stages of sleep, stages 1 to 4 are called non-REM, and stage 5 is called REM.
It takes about 90 to 120 minutes to complete the 5 stages of sleep at once. So, if one sleeps for 7-9 hours, one can repeat the stages of sleep about 5-6 times.
In stage 1, even the slightest sound wakes one up. And after about 5 minutes, one enters stage 2, and after about 10 to 15 minutes, one moves on to stage 3. In stage 3, the first stage of deep sleep, one’s pulse and breathing are stabilized. Stage 4 is the stage of deep sleep, and in stages 3 and 4, it isn’t easy to wake up. Stage 4 is an important stage because it releases various hormones, including growth hormones.
And after a certain amount of time, one enters REM, stage 5. During REM, one’s blood pressure, breathing, and body temperature rise. At this time, the muscles of the whole body are relaxed. One usually dreams in REM sleep, and dreams convert information during the daytime into long-term memory.
Therefore, if one forces oneself to wake up in stage 3 or 4, the stages that are difficult to wake up from, one feels extreme exhaustion. Thus, waking up during stages 1 or 2 will be less tiring to wake up. To wake up at stages 1 or 2, one can use an app or program to calculate the time of stages.
However, one needs 7-9 hours of sleep to get enough REM sleep. If one doesn’t get enough REM sleep, one’s body gets tired even if one slept enough, and if one gets too much REM sleep, one’s pulse, blood pressure, breathing, and body temperature may go up and down repeatedly, making one’s body tired.