Sleep
Looking in on a sleep study, you’ll see that the brain is actually very active during sleep, cycling through non-REM stages and ending in REM sleep approximately five times during the night. Transitions between stages are clearly visible as shifts in EEG patterns.
Graphs illustrating the human sleep cycle typically present an 8-hour time span, as shown below. But this doesn’t tell the whole story of sleep. The amount of time spent sleeping and the content of our sleep change across the life span. Currently, only two thirds of U.S. adults get the recommended minimum of 7 hours per night (Liu, Wheaton, et al., 2016).
SleepEnlarge figure Image description
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