Every person goes through five stages of sleep. To feel good we need to go through each stage every night. During stages 1 and 2 you sleep lightly. It is easy for someone or something to wake you. During stages 3 and 4 you sleep deeply. It is not easy for anyone to wake you. You hear no sounds and see no lights .

Then comes the last stage of sleep. It is called REM (rapid eye movement). This is the stage in which you dream . You breathe more quickly than in the previous stages. Your eyes move rapidly under your eyelids and you dream.

There are all kinds of dreams: good ones, bad ones and nightmares . You need your dreams. You dream more if you have a special problem . Dreams help you solve your problem and give you answers to some questions. Actually, you dream four to six times during the REM stage. Very often you don’t remember what you have dreamt about.

It is important to realize that sleep does not progress through these stages in sequence. Sleep begins in stage 1 and progresses into stages 2, and 3. After stage 3 sleep, stage 2 sleep is repeated before entering REM sleep.

Once REM sleep is over, the body usually returns to stage 2 sleep. Sleep cycles through these stages approximately four or five times throughout the night.