 Alright guys in this video I want to talk about the stages of sleep and how how sleep works in general because I don't think I've actually Mentioned that before I just want to explain like a very basic background Information about how sleep cycles and stages work and the best way of using that to learn how to lose a dream and sleep better So in an average night's sleep, okay, this is assuming by the way, we're gonna take our example We're gonna come up with an example name. I don't know Let's say Johnny right so let's say Johnny sleeps eight hours a day eight to nine hours a day So he goes to bed at ten he wakes up at 6 a.m. Which is a fairly as for the fairly standard sleep pattern sleep schedule It's not too late going to bed, but it's also early enough that you can get ready for work and stuff So Ted let's say 10 p.m. To 6 a.m. Is the sleep duration that's how long they've got Johnny's gonna sleep So within that time you'll have five about five sleep stages Cycle sorry with sleep cycles Within that time you'll have five sleep cycles now a sleep cycle is a 19 minute period consisting of five sleep stages So there's a lot of terminology here that sometimes gets mixed up and even myself, you know in previous videos I I sometimes mix these things up because it's so It's so easy to do you know these words are fairly synonymous with each other But there are they do mean different things so let me explain a sleep cycle is What we refer to as that chunk of 90 minutes that 90 minute chunk of time Within which there are sleep stages So if you think of the cycle as a big wheel right and then the stages are the little spokes on the wheel So you've got stage one stage two three four five so Your average night sleep. Let's say eight hours is made up of five sleep cycles So five chunks of 19 minutes roughly, okay The timings might not add up perfectly some sometimes it's shorter. Sometimes it's it's more, you know, it is The human body is not an exact thing, you know, sometimes we'll sleep or for more or less time It also depends on interruptions and things like that. But just for argument's sake Let's just assume five 90-minute chunks, which are your sleep cycles Within each cycle you have five sleep stages. The first stage is N REM sleep non REM sleep Essentially, this is just your body starting to transition from being awake to being asleep Okay, now if you're if you're woken up during this stage of sleep most people when they're woken up during the stage Well, not even feel like they've been asleep at all. They might just say oh, I was just my eyes were just closed Okay, but they actually were starting to fall asleep and it is technically a stage of sleep But most people will just think oh, I was just closing my eyes. Just resting. Okay, they won't say oh I was in a deep sleep. So this is a transition period This is also where when you do the wild technique you you keep your mind awake during this non-REM stage of sleep in order to Slip into a lucid dream, but that's for another video. So the first stage non REM sleep. Okay, and this lasts for anywhere between Five to ten fifteen minutes. It really depends on the person. I'm not I'm actually not gonna go into the timings of these things just because it does vary massively from person to person and you know There's a lot of different factors that will influence this like say if you're if you're sleep deprived Let's say you've not been having enough sleep during the week then on date day seven say for example Your you might jump straight into deep sleep and you might miss the first three stages of sleep This is very very common. It's known as a sleep debt And it's essentially your body just trying to catch up on the lost deep sleep that you've missed So I'm not going to go into timings But stage one is a non REM sleep transition period not really a proper stage of sleep But it's like the transition between being awake and being asleep stage two stage two is essentially just like a continuation of stage one it's where your Your sleep paralysis will kick in, you know, your body will start to paralyze your muscles and you will start to Well not start to you will be asleep during the stage and this is where Your body starts to slow down. It's the things like metabolism You know your core temperature will cool down to get ready for the deepest stages of sleep And you'll start to be more relaxed especially if this is the first sleep cycle of the night So when you first go to sleep, this is where your body will start to bring the temperature down Bring the heart rate the blood pressure bring it all down to a low Relaxed deep state of relaxation Yeah, that's stage two now stages three and four are where things get interesting. This is where the arguably Arguably these are the most important stages of sleep along with REM sleep, but mainly the three and four What what happens here is your body starts to regenerate you start to have a lot of things happen within your body Like your you'll start to regenerate your your energy things like this You will start to you'll be very deeply asleep at this point if you are woken up during these sleep stages You will feel very groggy. Okay, you will feel fatigued annoyed anxious sad Angry whatever not good idea to wake yourself will have you or be woken up during stages three and four This is also when your body releases growth hormone Okay, so if you're let's say if you work out or you're at the gym or something like this You've you may have heard it being said that most of the muscle growth happens when you're asleep And this is very true During stages three and four your body releases growth hormone. It fixes its muscles. It repairs things It digest your food. It does all these these things for you It does all these things for you during those stages Very important stages of your sleep very very important and then we move on to my favorite stage Which is stage five stage five is your REM sleep This is your rapid eye movement sleep and the reason it's called that is Because your eyes underneath your eyelids during the stage are they're darting about all over the place Okay, they're looking at in random corners of your eyes We don't really know the exact reason for that. Yeah, some people say it's because you're Looking where you are looking in your dream and there is some truth to that but that's not always the case Okay, that doesn't always happen for everyone. So this is also being been called paradoxical sleep The reason it's called paradoxical sleep is because your brain This should be the stage where you're the most relaxed But your brain is actually sort of hyperactive at this point, you know, you've got a lot of hormones going through your body related to awareness Consciousness alertness that sort of thing and this is why it's the perfect time to have a lucid dream And so what happens is when you get to the end of your REM sleep you will sort of cycle back again to the Start of the next sleep cycle. So you start again in non REM sleep the light transition period that I said about before This doesn't mean this doesn't mean that you wake up every 90 minutes What happens is it's a fluid transition. So you will go from having REM sleep after the first sleep cycle You go from having REM sleep at the end smoothly into having non REM sleep where you're Transitioning you're not really transitioning the second time. You're already asleep. You're just going into the next cycle However, it is a good time And it is a very common time to wake up during that time when you've just had your REM sleep Most people wake up during those those periods of time, especially towards the end of the night Which we'll get into in a second that cycle now essentially repeats itself Five to six times depending on how long you sleep for and if you're interrupted Until you wake up very simple right very very simple. I hope you're following along so far Now what happens is Most most of those sleep sleep stages most of them stay the same throughout the night The only difference the only changes there are as you as you get closer to waking up the last two sleep cycles the last hour and a half This sorry the last the last three hours of your sleep the last two sleep stages During the last three hours of your sleep the last two sleep cycles Your REM sleep gets progressively longer During those those last few hours of your sleep. That is why it's a perfect time to lose a dream Okay, so the last few hours of your sleep are the ideal time to lose a dream your hormones are in the perfect position Right, you've got serotonin slowly rising in your bloodstream To make way for you waking up to get your consciousness and you know Prepare your mind to be alert and awake for the day But at the same time because you've had three or four state at sleep cycles where you've had your restorative deep sleep Your body is very relaxed your body temperature is still fairly low and You're still able to have these vivid dreams making it the perfect time to lose the dream now Most dreams happen during REM sleep, which is why it's the most important time to target is your last few hours of your REM sleep Which happens during the early hours of the morning, which is why you may have heard of the technique Wake back to bed essentially what you're doing is you're waking yourself up during that time to then go back to sleep and have a lucid drink Now that is how the sleep cycles sleep stages. That's how they all work in order to learn more about how to best target those those different stages and how to best utilize and for lucid dreaming I'm gonna save that for another video because I Just want to you know I think this video has gone on long enough and I The coffee in on my shelf there has been waiting for me for a good few minutes now, so I'm gonna cut it there Hopefully you understand and I'll see you next time Thanks for watching guys this video and this channel was supported by my patreon followers Please consider giving just a dollar a month to support this channel or just click the links in the description You'll find links to various lucid dream products articles techniques and tutorials if you did enjoy this video Please click the notification bell and subscribe and I'll see you next time Why are you still watching that you should have clicked one of my related videos by now right or subscribed or gone on to my website or something like that