(NaturalHealth365)  You probably have a rough idea of how many hours you slept last night.  But do you know how much of that time you spent dreaming?

Most of us never think much about the different stages of sleep.  Yet a study of more than 95,000 adults links one particular stage to the health of nearly every system in the body.

Wrist trackers measured sleep stages night after night

For the study, published in PLOS Medicine in September 2026, researchers analyzed data from 95,559 adults in the UK Biobank.  Each person wore a wrist activity tracker for seven days and nights.  Then a computer program used those movement patterns to estimate how long each person spent in light, deep, and REM sleep.

REM, short for rapid eye movement, is the stage when most vivid dreaming happens.  Over the next nine years, the team reviewed hospital records for more than 1,000 diseases.  As a result, they could see which sleep habits were linked to better or worse health later on.

Dream sleep stood out across dozens of conditions

People who got more REM sleep had a lower risk of 83 different diseases.  For every extra 48 minutes or so of REM sleep, heart failure risk ran 26% lower.  Similarly, atrial fibrillation risk ran 17% lower, while parkinsonism, a group of movement disorders, dropped by 80%.

Deep sleep, the slow and restful stage, mattered too.  Each additional 48 minutes of deep sleep was linked to an 11% lower risk of type 2 diabetes and a 14% lower risk of depression.  Of course, the trackers estimated sleep stages from movement rather than brain waves, so the numbers offer a broad view.

Six to eight hours hit the sweet spot

Total sleep time also followed a clear pattern.  For most conditions, risk was lowest among people who slept six to eight hours a night.  Meanwhile, sleeping fewer than six hours went along with 30% higher heart failure risk, and under five hours raised the risk of 37 conditions.

Interestingly, more sleep did not always mean better health.  People who slept longer than eight hours had higher odds of depression, which suggests quality matters as much as quantity.  Because the study tracked patterns rather than testing changes, the authors noted that other factors could partly explain the results.

Easy ways to get more restorative sleep this fall

Keep the same bedtime and wake time, even on weekends.  This study found irregular sleep schedules to be a risk factor.  With clocks falling back on November 1, now is a perfect moment to reset your routine.  Choose a wake time you can keep seven days a week, and let your bedtime follow naturally.

Skip the nightcap and finish dinner early.  Alcohol may help you drift off, yet a drink before bed cuts into REM sleep later in the night.  A heavy late meal can also keep your body busy digesting during hours meant for rest.  Instead, try a cup of chamomile or lemon balm tea in the evening.

Get morning daylight and keep your bedroom dark and cool.  Ten to fifteen minutes of outdoor light after waking helps set your internal clock for the day.  At night, use blackout curtains and keep the room around 65-68 degrees.  Moving phones and tablets out of the bedroom also removes a major sleep disruptor.

Fill your plate with magnesium-rich foods.  Magnesium helps calm the nervous system, and many adults don’t get enough.  Pumpkin seeds, spinach, Swiss chard, black beans, and avocados all supply this relaxing mineral.  Some people also find a warm bath with Epsom salts helps them unwind before bed.

When sleep stays out of reach

Plenty of people do everything right and still lie awake at 3 a.m. with a racing mind.  Often, stress and energy hormones have drifted out of balance, and better sleep habits alone cannot fully correct them.  So if restful nights feel like a distant memory, the root cause may run deeper than your bedtime routine.

Your thyroid and adrenal glands help regulate energy, stress, and the daily rhythms that shape your sleep.  Jonathan Landsman’s Thyroid and Adrenal Health Docu-Class will show you how to improve these vital glands and restore balance.  No doubt, deeper sleep ought to be a top priority for good health.

Click here to order the Thyroid and Adrenal Health Docu-Class today.

Sources for this article include:

Plos.org
Sciencedaily.com