With all its glittering nightlife and high-tech days, the 21st century has truly forgotten how to sleep. Our schedules have changed to compete with the night, we are either fulfilling our shift at the office or gluing our eyes to Netflix at night. In such a situation, our sleeping patterns are disrupted completely. At Urbantrnd, we advocate for a holistic approach to healthy living and thus, we want to help you to understand good night’s sleep with Oura Rings.
Getting a Good Night’s Sleep with Oura Rings
What are Oura Rings?
Just the solution that you need to understand and develop deep sleep! It is a wearable technology ring embedded with sensors that are connected to your smartphone. Oura Rings is used to monitor your sleep, body temperature, movement, respiratory rate, heart rate, and readiness of the body.
What is Deep Sleep or Good Night’s Sleep?
Deep Sleep is the slow-wave sleep that occurs in the final stages of non-REM sleep. When we sleep for 8-9 hours, we are not sleeping in the same manner in all these hours. Achieving the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep is just one aspect; the quality of sleep is equally important for health. The quality of a good night’s sleep depends on the amount of deep sleep in that duration.
Stages of a Good Night’s Sleep
The sleep cycle comprises of both rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep and is divided into 4 stages. To understand this better, let us understand the types or stages of sleep better.
Stage 1: This is the beginning of non-REM sleep and marks the transition from wakefulness to sleep, lasting around 5-10 minutes. In this stage, the brain generates slow theta waves, and sleep can be easily disrupted.
Stage 2: This is the second phase of non-REM sleep which lasts approximately 20 minutes. The body temperature drops, eye movement decreases, and the heart rate begins to slow down as the body begins to produce sleep spindles which aids memory processing and learning.
Stage 3: This is also known as the Deep Non-REM Sleep. This is when the deep sleep occurs, and muscles relax completely. The blood pressure and breathing rate also drop. This is when the delta brain waves are present. This stage is important because it helps the tissue repair, and enhances growth and cell regeneration. It also regulates metabolism, and glucose control, and boosts the immune system.
Stage 4: Known as REM sleep, this is the phase where dreams occur, and the eyes move rapidly. The brain becomes more active while the body becomes immobilized and relaxed.
How to understand Good Night’s Sleep with Oura Rings?
There is no direct way to calculate the amount of deep sleep or REM sleep. However, you can get an idea about your deep sleep based on the body’s activity. Oura Ring will help you monitor this data.
As Oura Ring calculates the heart rate, heart rate variability, body temperature, and blood pressure, it will help you to see the phase where your heart rate, body temperature, and blood pressure drop. By this you can see how much time you require to transition to deep sleep, how long it lasts, and the possible factors that can affect it.
Since Oura Ring calculates body movement and readiness, it can help you see your sleep latency, how much you toss and turn in sleep, and if you have any sleep disorder like sleepwalking.
You can also use the Oura ring to monitor your bodily changes after you wake up. This way you can compare the improvements you see after waking up corresponding to changes in deep sleep.
See more: How to improve Sleep Hygiene with Oura Rings?
Remember that individual responses to sleep data can vary and it is important to consider your overall well-being and energy levels with the insights provided by Oura Ring. If you have had a disturbed sleep for a long time, you must remember to be kind to yourself. Give time to the new habits that you will introduce to understand and develop a good night’s sleep with Oura Rings. Click here to buy Oura Rings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Is REM or Deep Sleep preferable?
Neither of the two can hold superiority over the other as all 4 stages of sleep serve a distinct purpose. While REM sleep is required for learning, memory, and mood regulation, non-REM sleep is important for physical restoration, growth, repair, and memory consolidation. This way, both types of sleep are necessary for body functioning and together they make a good night’s sleep.
Q. What is the recommended duration of deep sleep?
The duration of deep sleep may vary according to age. For example, children of 1-5 years of age sleep around 11-14 hours and need deep sleep of 2.2-3 hours. On the other hand, adults over 18 years of age require a sleep of 7-9 hours and require a deep sleep of 1.5-1.8 hours.
Q. What can disturb your deep sleep?
Many factors like disruptions to circadian rhythms, sleep disorders (e.g., sleep apnea, insomnia, etc.), stress, anxiety, caffeine, alcohol, or poor sleep hygiene can disturb your deep sleep.