The relative quiet of non-REM sleep may aid long-range brain communication and information processing, says Sara Mednick, [professor of cognitive sciences], at the University of California, Irvine. … The slow wave stage of non-REM sleep “is the most restorative sleep you can get,” she said at a recent talk, and since REM sleep begins around the same time every night regardless of when we hit the pillow, “you want to try to get to bed early—because it makes sure that you get enough slow wave sleep before the REM onset.”

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