I took part in a gold standard sleep study to find out what happens during a sleep cycle — here are my results

The Tom's Guide Sleep Features Editor sitting cross legged on a hotel bed with wires strapped to her body and head to monitor her sleep.

The key to getting good sleep is understanding how it works. But it's a complicated thing. And, while we usually hyperfocus on sleep duration, counting the hours of rest we get and assuming the more the better, recent studies have shown that sleep quality is actually more important.

A key indicator of sleep quality is the way our sleep cycles look. A sleep cycle is made up of four main stages: REM, and NREM1, 2 and 3.