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Sleeping helps with recovery, boosts our brain health, and reduces stress. Therefore, it is important to learn how to increase REM sleep, a sleeping phase that is vital for our well-being. The name REM comes from the eye movement that occurs during this phase.
We already know that every grown-up needs 7-8 hours of sleep daily. Babies need more when they are growing, and they spend half of their sleep in the REM phase. You need a good amount of REM sleep for proper well-being and better mental and physical health.
What is REM?
REM or rapid eye movement is the deepest part of our sleep. It is one of the four stages of the brain when we are asleep.
While the brain is in the sleep cycle during this phase, there are many changes like increased activity of the brain, muscles relaxing, and eye movement, among others, followed by our dreams, which occur during this time. REM lasts for only 90 minutes after we are asleep, owing to which, we should spend at least 120 minutes in this stage of sleep for better learning and memory.
How to increase REM sleep? Few methods to try
1. Stop consuming alcohol
Drinking alcohol can make you dizzy and at the same time, calm you down and help you relax. However, drinking alcohol a few hours before sleeping can make your head heavy.
You can get headaches and you might not be able to sleep properly as alcohol is broken down to glutamate, which makes our nerves over-excited. This can break your sleep in between, and you cannot complete the rest of it, once you are up in the middle of the night.
2. Physical activity
Playing your favorite sports or doing your best exercise can help you to keep a good routine, as you will get up in the morning automatically. This will ensure you go to sleep at night on time.
Do your daily dose of exercise and stay in a routine, and you’ll get the best sleep every day, as it will get the blood flowing through the veins better, leading to better REM sleep.
3. Mediation or yoga
Meditation can increase your concentration and focus, and yoga can increase your flexibility. Sometimes, we do not get proper sleep at night, as we are bothered by our thoughts, and they haunt us in the form of stress and anxiety.
Meditating can help and so can yoga during these times, and it can also help us address depression, which sometimes disturbs our sleep.
4. Get a proper routine
Get into a proper routine by planning your activities, getting up on time, and sleeping on time. Practice this for a few days and use an alarm to get up and go to sleep. Also, keep your phone or tablet next to yourself and listen to some relaxing music or podcasts on low-volume settings and try to get some good sleep.
Once your body is used to this for a few days, your sleep cycle will be fixed and regulated, which will increase your REM sleep.
5. Caffeine and nicotine
Do not take caffeine in high dosages as caffeine or caffeine supplements can prevent sleep by keeping you awake the whole night by sending signals to the brain that make you more alert.
Similarly, smoking can also affect sleep in the same manner and affect sleep quality because of the downsides of nicotine.
How to increase REM sleep? Foods that can increase REM sleep
1. Rice
Rice is a good source of carbs, with a high glycemic index that can help us to sleep better as more melatonin and serotonin can induce the sleepy feeling and increase REM in sleep.
2. Kiwi
It contains melatonin and because of greater secretion of this hormone, the circadian rhythm is regulated. This helps us sleep better and increases REM in sleep.
3. Almonds
They are another good source of melatonin, which encourages deep sleep and also increases REM.
4. Chamomile tea
If you have a cup of this tea before bedtime, you will get better sleep any day. Chamomile tea is known for its many magical properties, and reducing insomnia is one of them.
5. Oatmeal
It is a good source of magnesium and melatonin, which makes it very effective in improving the quality of your sleep. So, if you are thinking about how to increase REM sleep, start having a bowl of oatmeal to aid the process.
What did Sigmund Freud say about dreams?
Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, called our dreams repressed wishes or unfulfilled desires. Science says that dreams are meaningless images that we see during REM sleep, but Freud believed dreams do have meanings, even if they may seem unrealistic or hard to remember. He believed that science has the power to interpret our dreams.
Freud believed in the method of free association, whereby he made his patients explain their dreams instead of giving his feedback or opinions about the dream. He believed that an individual who dreamt of something could decipher and make meaning out of it only on his own. Thus, the importance of REM sleep lies in the fact that it makes dreaming possible.
If you are having trouble sleeping, do not take sleeping pills or supplements right away. Contact a medical professional first and understand the cause of your sleeplessness before treating it.
