# @healthline on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DbL-O6gG90L
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68417551-healthline-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/55e3b060cc.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-24T19:17:47.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Healthline (@healthline) — https://gondola.cc/healthline

## Caption

😴 You spend about a third of your life sleeping, but sleep is far more complex than simply spending hours in bed. 

Understanding the different stages of sleep can help explain why some mornings you wake up feeling refreshed — and others, like you barely slept at all.

👉 Keep swiping to learn what happens during each stage of sleep, and comment SLEEP for tips on improving your sleep quality.

#sleepcycle #sleepstages #sleephealth #healthyhabits #bettersleep

Before you read it, we reviewed it.
Article Medically Reviewed By: Thomas Johnson, PA-C
Article Review Date: 1/22/2026
Source: Lockett, E. (January 22, 2026). Everything to Know About the Stages of Sleep. Healthline. healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/stages-of-sleep

Stage N1 is the transition from wakefulness to sleep. If you’re woken up during this stage, you often won’t even realize you’d fallen asleep.

N2 sleep makes up the largest percentage of your total sleep time. You can still be woken relatively easily. This is the stage right before deep sleep.

Slow wave sleep is the hardest stage to be woken from. It’s where most of your body’s healing and restorative work happens.

REM sleep starts about 90 minutes after you fall asleep. 

It’s brief the first time — only about 10 minutes — but gets longer with each cycle, sometimes lasting 30 to 60 minutes by the end of the night.

Suddenly, getting “8 hours” doesn’t sound so simple, does it? 🌙

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## Tags

healthyhabits, sleepstages, sleepcycle, bettersleep, sleephealth

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