Deep sleep is essential for the body to function properly.

The key to staying youthful and healthy is deep sleep.

On the other hand, sleep disturbances are commonly associated with existing chronic diseases, and mental and physiological disorders.

Poor quality sleep and chronically disturbed sleep can increase the disease burden on patients with chronic illness. It has a profound impact on a patient’s experience of chronic illness.

Not only that, genes are distorted by a lack of deep sleep. Genes associated with immune deficiency would decrease, and those genes associated with the promotion of tumors, long-term chronic inflammation within the body, and stress would increase.

Lack of deep sleep can have a number of impacts on your body.

Improving your deep sleep leads to a healthy and fulfilled life.

Continue reading to find out how you can reach this marker of biological youth. 

Why is deep sleep so important?

There are 3 stages of sleep: Light sleep, REM, and Deep sleep.

Deep sleep or slow-wave sleep is the most regenerative stage of sleep.

In healthy adults, at least 20% of your night sleep should be deep sleep.

Deep sleep and delta waves are actually a marker for biological youth.

Deep sleep is known as the healing stage when tissue growth and repair take place, important hormones are released, and cellular energy is restored.

Deep sleep is important for cognitive function and memory, and it is thought to play a role in learning processes, and the developing brain.

During deep sleep, the following functions of the body take place:

• Physical recovery,
• Consolidation of memories,
• Balancing out blood sugar levels,
• Detoxification of the brain,
• Vitalization of the immune system,
• Process of learning.

During deep sleep, breathing, heartbeat, body temperature, and brain waves reach their lowest levels. The muscles are extremely relaxed, and it’s increasingly difficult to wake someone up during this stage.

How to increase it?

There doesn’t seem to be such thing as too much deep sleep.

Deep sleep is the most essential of all for feeling restored and staying healthy.

If you’re having problems with keeping up with the recommended hours of deep sleep, here are some tips on how to increase them:

• Exercise,
• Healthy diet,
• Reduce stress,
• Block blue light before bed,
• Sleep routine and rituals,
• Listen to pink noise, ^[1] 
• Stimulate your brain, ^[2]
• Meditation and breathwork,
• Tongue Exercises,
• Listen to relaxing music before sleep, ^[3]

I started using these strategies to encourage better sleep, but the following 3 are my key strategies:

1. Oura ring – Measures your sleep, recovery and stress resilience. This tiny device has helped me to track my deep sleep each night. Find more about it here.
2. Formula 303 Supplement – It is a supplement, a simple and natural one, that is composed of only two herbal ingredients and magnesium. It helps relax the muscles and ease the symptoms of insomnia, tension, anxiety and stress, muscle spasms aches, and pain. Find more about it here.
3. Nucalm is a technology that is designed to help you disconnect. It’s medically proven that it solves stress and improves sleep quality. NuCalm activates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, which aids in recovery and relaxation. I get up an hour early to do a 50-minute rescue session because every 20 minutes of Nucalm is like 1 hour of restorative sleep per the NuCalm claims. I have to say that my anxiety has significantly reduced since I started using it. I’m able to take stress in stride in a way I couldn’t before starting Nucalm. This is huge for someone who has chronic illness since the illness causes more stress around being ill. I’d estimate about a 50% reduction in anxiety and stress. Find more about it here.

Conclusion

Lack of deep sleep can cause various conditions and can harm the immune system. 

Lack of deep sleep may increase the risk of developing chronic diseases like heart disease or cancer.

For those with chronic conditions, it can make their burden even heavier and slow down the healing process.

Because of its importance for your overall health, allow yourself to have enough hours of sleep each night. That way you’ll ensure for yourself the maximum duration of deep sleep.

In addition, start implementing effective strategies that will help you gain extra hours of deep sleep.

If you’re concerned about your sleep patterns or you’re experiencing some of these disorders, schedule an appointment with your doctor.