REM Sleep Benefits

REM sleep is an important stage that your body needs to go through every night. Here, a few reasons why you need your REM sleep.

What Happens During REM Sleep
During the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, you dream, you experience an increased heart rate and breathing and your muscles are immobile. Also, true to the name, your eyes move rapidly. Your brain is highly active and resembles your waking state most closely.

Generally, you'll go through the REM stage 4 or 5 times a night, every 90 minutes or so. The first session will be about 10 minutes and each session thereafter gets longer, sometimes up to an hour in length.

Why REM Sleep is Important
This stage stimulates the areas of the brain that are responsible for learning. Infants and children spend more of the night experiencing REM sleep than adults; this may be the reason why. Studies have linked REM sleep with the ability to learn certain mental skills. When deprived of REM sleep individuals could not recall skills they were previously taught, while those who got REM sleep could. Some believe the brain is organizing what it has learned while awake during this stage of sleep and committing these new ideas to long-term memory.

The brain activity that occurs during this stage can also improve immune system function, so if you notice you often get sick when you're sleep deprived, this may be why.