Our sleep runs on cycles that last 90-120 minutes. Every night, we run through atleast 5-6 such cycles. Each sleep cycle has different stages of sleep and they can briefly be classified as light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep.

Light sleep is where your brain, heart rate and breathing have slowed down but brain is still relatively active. We stay in this stage of sleep for nearly first half of the night. This stage is essential for memory consolidation.

Deep sleep is when your brain waves completely slow down and both heart rate and breathing are at their lowest. While this stage accounts for a very small % of our total sleep time, it is very essential for physical recovery, immune system function and hormonal balance.

REM stands for random eye movements and as the abbreviation goes, your eyeballs move rapidly in this stage of sleep. Your brain resembles wakefulness and heart rate and breathing are also faster but guess what? Your muscles are paralysed. This is a stage where you get vivid dreams! (I am sure all of you have experienced this feeling of paralysis when you’re dreaming). We spend more time in this stage during later hours of the night. This stage is essential for cognitive function and emotional regulation.

There is something called an arousal threshold which is the stimulus needed for a person to wake up. Light sleepers have a very low arousal threshold i.e., they can wake up to the smallest of noises around them while the stimulus needs to be much stronger/louder for a deep sleeper. Why does this happen?

• Genetics: this is just one of the reasons but not the sole one
• Age: the quality of sleep cycle reduces as we age
• Stress: feeling nervous/anxious just before sleeping can cause you to wake easily
• Wake time during the day: if you are awake longer, nap less and are physically active, you tend to sleep better at night
• Lifestyle choices: late night movies, snacking, scrolling on your phone before sleep tend to disrupt your sleep cycle through the night
• Caffeine: having tea/coffee after 4-5 pm disrupts your sleep cycle as well

But why is this a problem?

• Light sleepers tend to wake up frequently, breaking the sleep cycle. This does not allow the body to enter all stages of sleep, thus hampering our body’s recovery system.
• Light sleep also increases sensitivity to pain
• Light sleepers do not feel rested even after sleeping the whole night so it naturally affects their productivity

If you have not slept well one night, does it make sense to take naps and make up for it?

Unfortunately no. Your body does not enter all stages of sleep cycle during power naps so your body’s recovery system is still affected. If you are repeatedly sleeping less for a period of time due to any of the above reasons, you end up with something called as “sleep debt”.

Sleep debt is the difference between how much sleep your body needs versus how much sleep you have had. The only way to pay off this debt is to get a good nights’ sleep, every night.

What can be done to help light sleepers sleep better?

• Avoid caffeine atleast 4-5 hours befoee bedtime
• Build a good bed time routine to train your body to understand the arrival of bedtime. Changing clothes, clearing your bed, applying cream, drinking a glass of milk, reading a book, etc. Build a step by step routine and follow it everyday
• Create a conducive environment for sleep. Cover curtains to darken the room, do not use bright lights an hour or two before bedtime
• Use white noise/sea waves in the background as they have a tendency to mask any noise in the background which might wake you up
• Use guided meditation videos to help you relax and drift into a peaceful sleep

The tips mentioned above do not work like magic overnight. You need to consistently do it over a period of time to train your body to relax and respond well. Despite all this, you might still have nights of poor sleep once in a while however, sleeping well on most nights reducing your sleep debt and helps your body repair and heal well.