Want To Achieve More Deep Sleep? Here's What A Functional Medicine Expert Recommends

While we sleep, we cycle through a handful of different sleep stages, each with its own unique function. When it comes to deep sleep, this crucial stage is where all the restorative magic happens in the body and mind, and if you're not getting enough of it, you're going to feel it.

Deep sleep (also sometimes called slow-wave sleep) is the third stage of sleep, following two stages of light sleep. About 20% to 25% of our time asleep is spent in this stage, during which muscle and tissue growth are promoted, as well as cellular repair.

This is also the stage when delta brain waves—the slow brain waves that signal relaxation—start to occur. As naturopathic sleep doctor Catherine Darley, N.D., previously told mindbodygreen, "Deep sleep is really important for growth hormone," adding it's when roughly 75% (and up to 85%) of our total growth hormone in a day is secreted.

So, how can you ensure you're getting more deep sleep every night? According to integrative and functional medicine expert Heather Moday, M.D., you'll want to reach for mindbodygreen's pioneering sleep formula sleep support+.*

As Moday wrote for mindbodygreen, "Since I started taking sleep support+ a few months ago, my deep sleep—which is the most important part of our sleep cycle—has increased in duration, I fall asleep faster, and I have been waking up feeling so much more refreshed."*

She adds that problems with sleep are some of the most widespread issues she sees in her practice, but sleep support+ "helps combat poor sleep due to the unique combination of magnesium bisglycinate, jujube, and PharmaGABA®, which induce relaxation and calm and help maximize sleep quality."*