Notice, for example, that the longest stretch of Stage 2 sleep is just before waking. Cut that short and you miss out on the period when your brain is consolidating a skateboarding move, a difficult piano fingering, or your jump shot. “The implication is that if you are preparing for a performance—a music recital, say—it’s better to stay up late than get up early,” Smith told me. “These coaches that have athletes or other performers up at five o’clock in the morning, I think that’s crazy.” The same logic applies to REM. The largest dose is in the early morning, between those chunks of Stage 2.
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