i have just read a few interesting reports that suggest that, as most of you know, as a baby you require a lot of sleep, as you move through child hood you require less, until you hit the teenage years in which you again require more, and then until you move into adult hood you require a smaller amount then what you did during your teen years.
The important part to this was the fact of the stages of sleep. Infants spend a long time in stage 3 and 4, children also spend a long time in these stages. As we grow older, we tend to spend less time in stages 3-4, Delta sleep, and move quicker into REM periods. Rem periods for older adults are also longer and more stable then REM periods for Children and Teenagers.
interesting huh, it explains why adults, well some, can fall asleep quicker then some younger adults, and why it can be easier for stability in lucid dreams for the older rather then the younger.
interesting huh
EDIT: sorry need to fix a mistake i made. Babies spend 50% of their time in rem and 50% of them time in deep sleep over the course of their sleeping cycle. I have also found conflicting reports about the rem periods in adults, although all state so far that adults are more stable in rem, some are suggesting that the rem periods are actually shorter then then we are younger…
I was under the impression that REM periods were longer in younger people then settling we we become adults. Though it makes sense that chldren need more deep sleep since they are growing, wich ofcourse is provided when they sleep alot more than adults.
Think about it! When you are a baby you grow pretty fast then after a few years you don’t grow quite as fast. Then puberty hits and you grow and change alot, so you require more sleep again. Then when you grow up, you donät change as much, so you settle.
During this time you grow not only physically but also mentally and have impressions to handle in REM sleep. First in early childhood you learn very much. Then in puberty the two halves of your brain start to communicate and a whole new set of problems arise that need to be handled.
Not that we stop growing mentally as adults, but there are less new impressions to handle.
hmm… well that’s really interesting as when i was a bit younger I certainly had loads more lucid dreams and were more stable as well, yet currently there really unstable but that may just be due to the whole ‘light’ issue in my room (in winter i get more and more stable LD’s because its darker…)
