Sleep is the Best Meditation - Dalai Lama

A good night's sleep is all it takes to reset and restart the next day. Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, has proven to have a deep impact on overall efficiency and performance.

Our wake time is usually set by our day time routines and sometimes by the alarm clock just alarming us up. However, that wake up time would have to determine what our sleep time needs to be to get enough hours of sleep. Following times to make it a habit can ensure a better night's sleep.

While Sleep experts and CDC recommend a certain number of hours of sleep by age, the amount of sleep needed by an individual can greatly vary. Some individuals may need all of the hours consecutively while some may function better with a daytime snooze. The closer the sleep habits are to the circadian rhythm, the better the sleep quality. A rule of thumb for the best sleep is to have a minimum of 5 complete sleep cycles lasting 90 minutes per cycle.

A sleep cycle consists of 4 stages of sleep. The first 3 stages being the non-rem (NREM) stage and the last being the Rapid Eye movement (REM) stage. We vary between light sleep and deep sleep but it is recommended to wake up after completing the REM stage (state of dreams) in the fifth cycle. Waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle can cause sleep disruptions.

A Sleep calculator can capture sleep patterns and times spent in each sleep phase. Sleep Calculators also keep track of wake time and sleep time and REM stage tracking.

Technology has greatly advanced and now there are plenty of sleep calculator app purchase options in android, iphone and ios.

Sleep calculators are a great tool to detect patterns and tell us a story of what is.

However, getting into what may be causing sleep deprivation may warrant some self diagnosis and possibly some help from experts.

Stress is one of the top reasons for loss of sleep. Apollo has spent years of research to come up with technology that detects stress and improves Heart Rate Variability under stress. It is now being proved that Higher HRV promotes amongst other things, better sleep. What does better sleep do? Well, now you know!