Sleep Like a Champion | Your Rest and Active Recovery – Infographics

Sleep is without a doubt an important and prized part of our busy lives, even more so when you're training your body intensively and on a regular basis. It is essential for our health and our workouts that we get the optimal rest to push forward to be our best.

The Different Stages of Sleep

Although you are not conscious during sleep, your brain is always active in the background. During each night of rest your brain will go through multiple cycles with distinct brain patterns. There are two main stages that your body goes through, while sleeping – Non-REM or REM.

Non-REM Sleep:

• Sleep Stage 1 is the stage between sleep and wakefulness.
• Sleep Stage 2 a slightly deeper stage of sleep and the phase of your rest where you spend most of your time sleeping.
• Sleep Stage 3 is often referred to as slow wave sleep because the brain waves are very slow. People in this stage are very difficult to wake up. This stage is where your body, muscles and various systems repair and recovers from physical activity, or strain.

REM Sleep

• In this stage, your eyes move rapidly beneath your lids and most of your other muscles are in an almost paralyzed state. REM can be called paradoxical sleep because your brain actually seems very active and awake, but your body is prevented from doing anything.

In this stage, your eyes move rapidly beneath your lids and most of your other muscles are in an almost paralyzed state. REM can be called paradoxical sleep because your brain actually seems very active and awake, but your body is prevented from doing anything.

How Much Sleep Do I Need?

There is no recipe for the perfect amount of sleep needed to live and perform at your complete and total best. The actual quality of sleep is far more important than the number of hours you manage to rest - although striving for more consistent sleep should always be important - the need for sleep will be different for different people.

The sleep enthusiasts at Casper (best known for their award winning mattress and transforming an industry) have created this handy guide below, helping us all sleep like a champion!