Roughly 95% of human growth hormone is produced during this stage of sleep. Slow wave sleep is when your body physically restores itself. What is the function of slow wave sleep & why is it important?
Most adults typically go through about 3-5 full sleep cycles a night. As the night goes on, episodes of SWS become shorter in the sleep cycles that follow. Your first period of SWS usually lasts 45-90 minutes. If you are woken during SWS, you often feel disoriented and groggy.Īfter falling asleep, your body soon transitions from light sleep to slow wave sleep (then later to REM sleep). It can be quite difficult to wake up from slow wave sleep, even if there are loud noises.
During this time your heart rate and respiratory rate decrease significantly, and your muscles relax as well. Your brainwaves are the slowest during SWS, and when monitored with an EEG their activity is synchronized. Slow wave sleep is also known as deep sleep–it is the stage of sleep when your body is in its most restful state. Below we’ll discuss the basics of slow wave sleep and explain what it is, what happens during it, why your body needs it, how much you should get each night, and what you can do to improve it. Slow wave sleep (SWS) is one of the 4 stages of sleep (along with wake, light sleep, and REM sleep) that your body spends time in on a nightly basis.