Last Updated on April 5, 2018 by Larious

It’s a fact that man is the only mammal that delays sleep. Sleep isn’t just a state where a person is inactive, it is much more than that. A good night sleep cannot be achieved by simply rolling into bed whenever one wants and hope for the best. A good quality sleep has to encompass a complete sleep cycle which comprises of sleeping stages and patterns that succeed each other during the night.

Non-Random Eye movement abbreviated as NREM by the sleep experts is the first stage of sleep and it generally occurs during the first 90 to 100 minutes when all essential body maintenance processes occur.

The first stage is then followed by the second stage which is called Random Eye movement abbreviated as REM. Is this stage of the sleep cycle, one’s brain is most active? More brain activity also means that during this stage one is most likely to dream. It is also the time in which one’s brain shifts few selected important short-term memories into long-term memories which is storage for a long time. In one sleep cycle, this REM second stage lasts for about 15-20 minutes, until one enters first stage NREM again because NREM is always followed by REM.

This process keeps on repeating throughout the night. But the key thing to notice is that the deepest period of sleep during a human sleep cycle is the first ever NREM period of 90 minutes. So, if one needs bedtime and lifestyle change from unhealthy to a healthy one, one must, by all means, try to optimize this period by increasing the quality of one’s sleep or by increasing the productivity of one’s sleep.

The biggest hindrance to a good sleep is snoring. Snoring is so common condition that one does not even think it’s a problem and it’s affecting their health. Although snoring can occur in anyone, mostly it is common in males and people who are obese. As one gets older, snoring can grow worse. Snoring actually is the result of airflow obstruction in the nose and mouth. This obstruction can be caused by a number of factors. Most common reason for snoring is due to bulkiness in throat tissue.

When one gains a lot of weight, it can lead to a bulky tissue. Children and people who have large tonsils often snore too. Another popular reason for snoring is poor muscle strength and toning in the throat and the tongue also. When throat and tongue muscles don’t have the strength and when they relax, this can lead to them collapsing, and when this happens, they fall back into the airway of the esophagus which causes snoring as a result. Snoring can lead to a large number of health problems, including sleep apnea.

Interruptions in breathing due to obstructed airflow can lead to waking up multiple times during a night, leading to drowsiness and laziness during the daytime which can be the reason for being in accidents. Since a person has woken up so many times he can only induce in light sleeping and not deeper sleep which is responsible for restoration. In some cases, it may also lead to sleepwalking. It also puts a lot of strain on heart leading to high blood pressure problems.

If one needs bedtime and lifestyle change, one needs to cure his snoring problem. Medical practitioners recommend exercise as a most important way of reducing snoring. The first step towards curing snoring is to actually monitor snoring and in turn one’s sleep. In earlier times, one had to keep a diary and ask their partner to monitor and tell when they snored, or if they had no one to do that for them, they were only left with an option of sleeping in a costly sleep clinic. But times have changed and with technological advancements in medical science and smartphones, one can just track their snoring with the help of apps on their phones.

• Snorelab app records one’s sleep noise and snoring noise all night and then it presents a score which people can compare to know how bad the problem is. One can do exercise and try changes in his sleeping routine and monitor if it has helped them or not.
• Sleep trackers like beauty rest provide sensors under the mattress which monitors respiration and heart rates also. It can also detect patterns and rhythms.
• If one needs bedtime and lifestyle change, one can also try beddit which is like a very similar version to beauty rest. The only difference being beddit sensors go directly under sleeping sheets instead of mattresses. Both these connect to apps on phones both with Android and iOS operating systems.
• S+ from ResMed is more advanced than these both sleep trackers as it monitors bedrooms sounds and temperature also and need not be kept under sheets.
• One can even get a band to do this for them. Fitbit bands are widely available all over the internet.