Did you know that most people spend over 30% of their lives sleeping? Sleep is the time of day that your body and mind get to rest and replenish. Without it, you can’t survive.

If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter, then it’s probably pretty obvious that cognitive function declines fast when you go without sleep. What you might not know is that it affects your physical body and immune system too.

From being stressed, to being short on time, to illness, wanting to fall asleep faster is something that’s been on many people’s minds at some point or another.

According to one study done at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1 in 4 Americans struggle with insomnia at some point in their life. Of that 25%, another 25% never recover and struggle their whole lives.

On average over a 7-9 hour night of sleep, we go through 4-6 cycles of sleep.

During these cycles there are two different kinds of sleep, NREM (non-REM) and REM (Rapid Eye Movement). Deep sleep consists of both NREM sleep and REM sleep, taking place in stages 3 and 4 of the sleep cycle.

Deep sleep is important because these are the stages where your mind and body recharge from the day. Stage 3 of the sleep cycle allows your body to recharge while stage 4 helps with your cognitive functions too. Without these stages of sleep, our thinking would suffer along with our mental and physical health.