Sleep patterns in care homes

Sleep progresses through three stages, N1, N2 and N3, of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM), and one of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. NREM sleep is associated with restoration of the body while REM sleep is associated with learning. The deepest stage of NREM sleep, N3 (slow-wave sleep), features strongly in the first half of the sleep period but is greatly reduced in older people.