How sleep works: what pulls you to bed, and what your brain does all night
Sleep cycles: why the first hours of sleep are not like the last
A night of sleep is not one long rest: light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep come back about every 90 minutes. And the first cycles of the night look nothing like the last.
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Your first round: down through light sleep into deep sleep, back up, and a short visit to REM. It takes about 90 minutes.
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Then it starts again. A night holds four to six of these rounds, called sleep cycles. Between two of them, you often come close to waking, and you forget it.
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