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• Part 1 of 2: Adjusting your sleeping habits
• Part 2 of 2: Medication and exercise

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is a state of sleep where your brain is very active and prone to dreams. During REM sleep, your eyes make rapid movements. The amount of REM sleep you get depends on age and other factors, with children being in REM 50 percent of the time during sleep and adults 20 percent. More REM sleep improves your memory and your overall mental abilities, according to research. You may also experience vivid dreams during the REM phase of your sleep cycle, and you may want to make the dreams you have at night last longer.

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Part 1 of 2: Adjusting your sleeping habits

1. Know the different sleep stages. There are four stages of sleep, with the fourth and last being REM sleep. To get more REM sleep, you will have to gradually guide your mind and body through the first three stages. Sticking to a regular sleep schedule and healthy sleeping habits can help with this.
   • Phase N1: This is the transition to sleep and takes about five minutes. Your eyes will slow down under their eyelids, and your muscle activity will slow, but you can easily be woken up by a sound.
   • Phase N2: This is the first phase of real sleep and lasts approximately 10–25 minutes. Your eyes stop moving completely, your heart rate slows down and your body temperature drops.
   • Phase N3: This is the beginning of deep sleep, a phase where you are difficult to wake up, and when you wake up, you usually feel groggy or disoriented for a few minutes. At this stage, your brain waves are particularly slow and blood is diverted from your brain to your muscles, restoring your body's energy.
   • Phase N4: The final stage of sleep is REM sleep, or dream sleep. It starts about 70 to 90 minutes after you fall asleep. It is likely that your eyes will move quickly (rapid eye movement), your breathing will become shallower, and your heart rate and blood pressure will increase. During this stage your arms and legs are paralyzed.
   • Remember to follow a certain sleep pattern throughout the night, alternating between being in deep sleep and REM sleep. The cycle lasts about 90 minutes and repeats 4-6 times throughout the night. As the night progresses, the period that you are in each phase changes. Most deep sleep occurs in the first half of the night. Later in the night, the duration of your REM sleep will increase.
2. Have a regular sleep schedule. Set yourself a sleep schedule when you go to bed and wake up, and do it around the same time every day, even on weekends or when you have a day off. The extent to which we need sleep is different for each person, but on average you need about 7-9 hours of sleep. Maintaining a regular sleep schedule will ensure that you will experience REM sleep more often, because you will cycle through the different sleep stages several times during the night, if you sleep the full 7-9 hours.
   • Some people think that sleeping an hour less will not affect their daily functioning very much, or that they can make up for the lack of sleep on the weekend or on a day off, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way . Any change or shift in your sleep schedule will only adversely affect your sleeping habit and may cause you to sleep less deeply or experience less REM sleep.
   • It is a myth that your body can quickly adapt to a different sleep rhythm. While most people can reset their biological clocks, this can only be done by keeping accurate records, and even then only in 1-2 hour increments, at best. Keep in mind that it can take up to a week for your body's internal clock to adjust to traveling across time zones or switching to a night shift.
3. A few hours before going to bed, turn off all electronics and distractions. Switch off your TV, smartphone, tablet and computer, or even better, completely remove all electronics from your bedroom. The type of light emitted by these screens has a stimulating effect on the brain, suppresses the production of melatonin (which aids REM sleep), and messes with your body's internal clock.
   • Another option is to have your computer switched off automatically. This automatically puts your machine into sleep mode and prevents you from sitting at the computer until too late, or just before going to bed. There are sleep options on both the PC and Mac that you can enable. If you want your computer to be ready to use it the next morning, you can also set a schedule to have the machine turn on automatically.
4. Make sure your bedroom is dark, cool and quiet. Use heavy curtains or blinds to block out light from the outside. Cover electronic screens, such as TVs or computers, so that they don't light up in the room. You can also make a sleep mask to cover your eyes, creating a dark space that will help you fall asleep.
   • If you find it difficult to fall asleep because there is a lot of noise outside, or because your partner is making quite loud sleeping noises, invest in a good pair of earplugs or a noise machine.
5. Do not drink caffeine or alcohol in the 4-6 hours before going to bed. About half of all the caffeine you drink at 7 p.m. is still in your body at 11 p.m. Caffeine is known as a stimulant and can suppress your REM sleep, and is found in coffee, chocolate, soda, black tea, diet products and some pain relievers. Limit the number of cups of coffee you drink in the hours before bed, or try to cut caffeine out of your diet altogether.
   • Alcohol also counteracts deep sleep and REM sleep. It keeps you in a lighter sleep phase so that you wake up more easily and it is difficult to fall back to sleep. Avoid drinking alcohol several hours before going to sleep to increase your chances of having REM sleep.
6. Go to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual. Your REM sleep stages are longer in the morning, so try to extend your REM sleep by adding 30 minutes of extra sleep to your rhythm. Adjust your bedtime so that you go to sleep 30 minutes earlier than normal, and keep this adjustment going by doing this every night.
   • Always be consistent in your sleep rhythm changes, because you need enough of each sleep phase, especially deep sleep, to improve your REM sleep. If you don't get enough deep sleep at night, your body may try to catch up the next night, which will decrease the amount of REM sleep you experience.

Part 2 of 2: Medication and exercise

1. Ask your doctor about melatonin for better REM sleep. Recent research has shown that taking melatonin supplements, about 3mg per day, can improve your REM sleep and help you stay in the REM phase of your sleep cycle for longer. Your doctor can recommend a melatonin supplement, usually in pill form, and prescribe a dose that suits your body type.
   • Melatonin is also recommended for older people and those who work evening shifts as it can help normalize your sleep cycle and promote your general health.
2. Be careful with over-the-counter medications that can suppress your REM sleep. Many of the side effects of these drugs can adversely affect your sleep and daytime alertness. Some commonly used medications that can interfere with REM sleep include:
   • Nasal decongestants.
   • Aspirin and other headache medications.
   • Painkillers containing caffeine.
   • Cold and allergy medicines that contain an antihistamine.
   • Certain diet pills and antidepressants.
   • If you are on any of these medications, try lowering the dose. Or look for alternative methods of treating these problems so that you can stop taking these over-the-counter medications.
3. Try to exercise for at least 20 to 30 minutes a day. Daily exercise is a proven method of helping people sleep, and it can help you stay in REM sleep stages longer. But exercising right before going to bed can disrupt your sleep rhythm. Try to get daily exercise at least 5-6 hours before going to sleep.