People ask me all the time questions about sleep. They always say, how can I increase my deep sleep?

As most of you know by now, I used to deal with chronic insomnia. I was a good sleeper up until I started working swing shift (3pm to 11pm) 5 days a week. That set off a cascade of insomnia and sleep issues after that. That’s what turned me into a night owl too.

I’m so fortunate to have retrained my mitochondria and overcome it.

But that’s another article.

You want to know how do I get more deep sleep?

First let’s talk about what deep sleep is and why you need it.

What is Deep Sleep?

Deep sleep usually occurs during the first half of the night. It happens during the third and fourth stages of NON REM sleep. It’s a time when our body is slowed down and completely relaxed. The brain waves are super slow in their wavelength. This is when your brain waves reach delta. Woohoo!

If you reach deep sleep your heart rates decreases, as does your breathing (enhance this through nasal breathing!) and core body temperature. If you get more deep sleep, you’ll wake up feeling rested. This is because its during deep sleep that your body is repairing tissue, bone and muscles along with strengthening your immune system.

We’ll talk below about how to get more of this each night.

What Are the Sleep Cycles?

1. Overview of Sleep Cycles

• Sleep Stages: Sleep is divided into two main types: Non-REM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) and REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.
• Cycle Duration: Sleep occurs in 90-minute periods, known as Ultradian Sleep Cycles. These cycles repeat 4-5 times throughout the night.

2. Non-REM Sleep

• Stages of Non-REM Sleep:
  • Stage 1: The lightest stage of sleep, where you transition from wakefulness to sleep. This stage lasts for a few minutes.
  • Stage 2: A deeper sleep stage where the body starts to relax more. This stage accounts for the majority of sleep time.
  • Stage 3 (and previously Stage 4): The deepest stage of Non-REM sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep. This is when the body repairs and regrows tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens the immune system.
• Characteristics:
  • Body Functions: During Non-REM sleep, the body slows down. Body temperature, breathing rate, and heart rate decrease.
  • Sleepwalking: Sleepwalking can occur during the deep Non-REM sleep stages (around Stage 3 to 4).

3. REM Sleep

• Characteristics:
  • Rapid Eye Movement: REM sleep is characterized by rapid eye movement, rising heart rate, and heavy breathing.
  • Dreaming: This stage is associated with dreaming, indicating that the brain is active even during sleep.
• Timing: REM sleep occurs approximately every 90 minutes and becomes longer with each successive cycle throughout the night.

4. Timing and Duration

• First Cycle: The first sleep cycle of the night typically includes a short period of REM sleep, lasting about 10 minutes.
• Subsequent Cycles: As the night progresses, the duration of REM sleep increases, while the time spent in deep Non-REM sleep decreases.
• Total Duration: Each sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes, and a typical night includes 4-5 cycles.

5. Circadian Rhythm Influence

• Biological Clock: The circadian rhythm coordinates sleep with the day-night cycle. A healthy adult, entrained to the sun, will fall asleep a few hours after sunset and wake up a few hours after sunrise.
• Body Temperature: The body temperature reaches its minimum around 6 AM, aligning with the end of the sleep period.

Sleep is generally divided into two main “cycles” or “phases”. They are NON REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Typically sleep happens in 90 minute intervals or cycles called Ultradian Sleep Cycles.

Is Deep Sleep Different than REM Sleep?

As discussed above, deep sleep typically happens in the first half of the night. It’s primary focus is to detoxify, cleanse, and repair tissue. In order to do this, your heart rate lowers as well as your core body temperature and breathing patterns. I personally feel so great now that I’ve been able to get more deep sleep.

A couple more points to note on deep sleep vs REM sleep…

• Deep Sleep: Focuses on physical restoration, characterized by slow brain waves and decreased body functions. It occurs mainly in the first half of the night. This stage is crucial for physical repair and growth. The body repairs tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens the immune system.
• REM Sleep: Involves high brain activity, dreaming, and physiological changes. It plays a role in memory consolidation and emotional regulation, occurring in cycles throughout the night and increasing in duration as the night progresses.

Now that we have all the particulars out of the way I wanna touch on how to increase deep sleep naturally by addressing 3 things your CBT-I sleep coach or sleep hygiene coach hasn’t really discussed.

Light, Sleep & Insomnia

Most sleep coaches talk in general about light by simply paying lip service to it. Most times they do not understand the differences between UVA, UVB and infrared light. They don’t know what the superchiasmatic nucleus is and how that regulates internal clock timing. They don’t understand the role light play on complex 4 (cytochrome c-oxidase) of your mitochondria.

The general platitude is, avoid screens at night or after sunset.

The first thing to note is that your eye is more of a clock than it is a camera. It is through specific wavelengths, frequencies and color temperature of light that we set our circadian rhythms.

A large portion of my research is into the physics of light on our mitochondria and sleep wake cycles.

Light frequency is the #1 influencer of our circadian rhythm and melatonin regulation. Other things influence how our mitochondria work like temperature, altitude, food, chemicals etc. But the #1 driver of how our mitochondria work is light.

Remember, light is King.

If you want to increase deep sleep every night, you absolutely must be METICULOUS about all the light you’re exposed to.

For example, you cannot live and work under fluorescent light each day and think that by avoiding screens 30 minutes before bed that that is going to help you fall asleep. Even a 15 second exposure to light can alter melatonin secretion and disrupt your circadian rhythm.

nnEMF & Deep Sleep

Do you have a smart meter on the wall outside or near your bedroom? Do you live near any cell phone towers? Do you keep your Wi-Fi router near your bed at night? Do you have your Wi-Fi router on during the night? Do have your cellphone on or near your bed at night?

If you answered yes to *any* of the questions above, you’re exposing your cells and tissues to non ionizing radiation.

What is non ionizing radiation?

Wikipedia defines it as, “Non-ionizing radiation refers to any type of electromagnetic radiation that does not carry enough energy per quantum to ionize atoms or molecules—that is, to completely remove an electron from an atom or molecule.”

The argument is that because these frequencies do not heat up the tissues, it is safe.

This is a lie. We know that non ionizing radiation can contribute to…

• Oxidative stress
• Cancer
• Sleep issues
• DNA damage
• Gene expression changes
• Brain tumors
• Cardiovascular issues
• Male fertility
• Neurological effects
• and more

There are many ways to mitigate the damage from non ionizing radiation and nnEMF exposure that we can talk about in another article. I just wanted to point out that if you are not reaching deep restorative sleep each night AND you know you’re exposed to these frequencies, this could be why.

The take away here is to

1. Avoid bringing your phone into your bedroom
2. Unplug your Wi-Fi at night
3. Put a cover over your smart meter and put tin foil on the inside of the wall as a start (there are other better ways to fix it but that’s a start)
4. Consider changing bedrooms, and/or calling your power company to “downgrade” your smart meter from digital to analogue

Statin Drugs and Deep Sleep

If you’re currently taking statin drugs they could be associated with an inability to reach deep sleep and or be associated with insomnia. These drugs disturb the physiology of the body and prevents moving from one phase to another.

If you’re taking a statin drug and have experienced any kind of sleep disturbance (it’s not rare and it’s not a side effect, it’s simply an effect), then I would suggest you talk with your doctor about this issue.

The #1 thing I constantly tell people I talk to is avoid medications if at all possible to get a better sleep. You could do everything right and if you’re on even one medication, it could be disrupting your sleep cycles and preventing deep restorative sleep.

Tracking Deep Sleep

How do you know if you’re getting deep sleep? How about REM sleep? There are a number of sleep tracking devices out there that will give you all the data. I’ll go more in depth on them in future articles. The two best ones are the  Oura Ring and the Whoop Band.

Conclusion

There are many other things you can do to increase your deep sleep that I didn’t go into in this article. I’m trying to keep things manageable (nobody wants to read a 5,000 word article) and actionable.

I figure if I can share just a couple of actionable sleep tips in each article, that’s a win. If I give you 13 things to do it’s too much. My other intention here is to provide links to studies so you can share with your friends, family, natural doctor or sleep coach that show there is data to what I’m saying here.

Start with a couple of thing to increase your deep sleep. Avoid Wi-Fi as best you can. Talk with your doctor about getting on a plan to reduce your statin drug medication under his supervision and see what you can do about your light environment.

Easy.

Questions

• Do you currently track your deep sleep?
• Do you have wifi on at night?
• Did you notice any changes in your sleep from when you first got it?
• Do you avoid screens at night?

Comment below and let me know.