When an adult falls asleep, her higher brain functions decelerate which allows her to enter the phase known as deep sleep. During this time her body hardly moves, breathing is slow and regular, and her muscles become relaxed and loose. After around an hour and a half later and her brain becomes more active and she enters into a period called light sleep. It is during this time when she may slip into REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep where most dreams occur. These deep/light cycles continue throughout the night, at around two hours intervals, so that the average adult spends around 6 hours in deep sleep and 2 in light sleep.

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