What Is Core Sleep? Why You Need More of It and How To Sleep Deeper Tonight

If you’ve ever woken up feeling groggy and sluggish even after a full night of rest, you might not be getting enough core sleep. What is core sleep? It’s a term that encompasses the most restorative stages, including slow-wave sleep (SWS), the deep sleep your body needs to feel truly rested. While young adults spend about 30 percent of their night in this crucial phase, that number can drop to just two percent (or less!) by age 60. 

As big fans of a sound night’s rest, we turned to the experts to learn everything you need to know about this relatively new term, including how boosting your deep sleep can improve your mood, energy, metabolism and more. Keep reading to discover simple strategies to get more deep, restorative sleep—starting tonight.

What is core sleep, and how does it differ from REM sleep?

You might have seen the term core sleep before, mainly if you track your sleep using a smartwatch or tracker app. But “core sleep isn’t a technical sleep medicine term, and it isn’t standardized from one tracker to the next,” explains Shelby Harris, PsyD, DBSM, licensed clinical psychologist and director of sleep health at Sleepopolis.

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Instead, it refers to “the most important stages of sleep that help you function well during the day,” says Harris. “This includes the deep, restorative parts of sleep [stage 3 of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep] and the early periods of rapid eye movement sleep.”

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Not only is healthy sleep important to keep your energy up, but these deep stages are vital for “physical recovery, mental sharpness, memory and managing emotions.”

Understanding the four stages of sleep

There are several stages of sleep, and each one serves a different purpose.

• Stage One: “This is a light, transitional stage of sleep during which you tend to drift in and out of sleep and may experience brief muscle jerks or the sensation of falling,” says Sanam Hafeez, PsyD, a clinical neuropsychologist and founder and director of Comprehend the Mind.
• Stage Two: This deeper stage of sleep has “specific brain patterns needed for disconnecting from your surroundings and preparing for deep sleep,” says Harris.
• Stage Three: Harris says this is also known as deep or slow-wave sleep. It’s “needed for physical restoration, muscle repair and immune system strength.”
• REM Sleep: This final stage of your sleep cycle “is characterized by vivid dreaming and rapid eye movements,” says Hafeez. “REM sleep is important for cognitive functions such as memory and learning.”

The sleep cycle repeats itself as the night progresses. The REM period typically happens about 90 minutes after falling asleep, and it becomes longer as the night goes on.

How core sleep fits into your sleep-wake cycle

Since core sleep comprises the most restorative stages of sleep, it intertwines with both the REM and deep sleep stages of restful sleep. “Core sleep mostly consists of deep NREM sleep, but also includes some amounts of REM sleep needed for psychological and emotional wellbeing,” says Harris.

The exact amount of core sleep you need varies by age and from person to person. However, Hafeez says that it typically takes one to two hours of deep sleep and one-and-a-half to two hours of REM sleep per night to fully function the next day. 

The benefits of tracking your core sleep

One of the easiest ways to track your core sleep is with a wearable smartwatch (think Fitbit or Apple Watch) or a slim sleep tracker pad you can tuck under your mattress, like Withings Sleep. Although results may not be 100 percent accurate, they can give you a ballpark idea of what you may be lacking.

The perk of tracking your core sleep includes “providing a window into your sleep and information on whether you’re getting enough restorative sleep,” says Hafeez. “You can track the duration of sleep, whether you’re in deep, light or REM sleep and whether your sleep is disturbed.”

Monitoring your sleep patterns can also help clue you into potential warning signs of sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea or other factors interrupting your sleep. (Learn how to tell if you have sleep apnea here.)

It’s also useful when you want to explore how your sleep environment impacts your slumber. For example, the temperature of your room, the comfort of your pillow and how light or dark your bedroom is.

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How to increase core sleep

A few tiny tweaks can make a big difference when it comes to shifting from light sleep to deeper core sleep, helping you wake up feeling refreshed and energized. 

Take a bedtime bath

The amount of slow-wave sleep you get is linked to the amount of heat you lose as your body cools itself down. Taking a hot bath before bed raises your body temperature, allowing for more passive cooling as you sleep. This leads to deeper rest, according to a meta-analysis by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin.

Fill up on fiber

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Enjoy tasty, high-fiber foods such as beans, avocados, nuts and raspberries by day and you’ll sleep more deeply that night. According to a study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, just one day of higher fiber intake means more time spent in slow-wave sleep. Fiber helps stabilize blood sugar levels, preventing the ups and downs that can disrupt your sleep cycle.

Stick to a schedule

Going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time every day (yes, even on the weekends!) helps regulate your body’s circadian rhythms, or internal clock. Canadian scientists who reviewed 14 studies found that a regular sleep schedule is strongly associated with deeper sleep and improved overall health.

Check your meds

Many common medications—including prescription drugs for blood pressure, diabetes and depression, as well as over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines—can disrupt your internal clock, lessening slow-wave sleep. Check with your doctor or pharmacist to see if anything you’re taking may be affecting your ability to sleep deeply.