There Are 4 Stages Of Your Sleep Cycle & This Is How To Wake Up During The Right One

Even if you've never formally looked into the four stages of sleep, you probably already know what they feel like: We lie down to go to sleep, start to drift off, maybe have one of those jerky twitches, then fall into light sleep, deeper sleep, and of course, REM sleep, where dreams occur. Each stage has a particular function, with one of them being the best to wake up during.

In Stage 1, you slowly begin to drift off. You might feel like you're falling at some point during this stage and suddenly jerking back awake. The official name for this reaction is hypnic myoclonia1, and it's totally normal (but stress and excess caffeine may make it more common). In this stage, your body and mind start "winding down," so to speak, traveling in and out of consciousness before you enter light sleep.

Stage 1 and Stage 2 sleep are sometimes called "core sleep."

Stage 3 is deep sleep (formerly Stage 3 and 4, which were combined), and it's the sleep stage involved in restoring your body. Deep sleep promotes muscle and tissue growth, along with cell repair. This stage is also sometimes known as delta sleep, as delta brain waves occur. If you wake up during deep sleep, you'll likely experience sleep inertia or grogginess.

The first REM cycle of the night usually lasts about 10 minutes, and it occurs 90 minutes after you fall asleep. As the night goes on, each REM stage will get longer, with the last one potentially reaching an hour in length. So, how much REM do you need? People average about four to five REM cycles a night. Interestingly, we spend less time in REM sleep the older we get. While babies can spend up to 50% of their sleep in this stage, adults average about 20 to 25% in REM3.

Regular exercise and a balanced diet that's low in caffeine and alcohol can help promote good sleep hygiene. But even if you're doing all the right things, sometimes stress and shifting schedules make it difficult to fall asleep at the same time every night. In that case, you might want to consider adding a sleep-promoting supplement to your routine (might we suggest mbg's sleep support+?).*

The overall consensus is that making enough time for deep, restorative sleep night after night is really the only way to naturally waking up during the optimal stage in your four-step sleep cycle. While we may not be able to fully control when we wake up, with good sleep hygiene, our body will do it properly for us.