What is REM sleep and why is it important?

If you’re looking to get the best night’s sleep in 2026, then you need to be focusing on your REM sleep.

I’ve been testing a Luna smart ring for the past few weeks, and its sleep features have been my favourite (stay tuned for my review coming soon). In the ring’s app, it breaks down my sleep analytics every night, and analyses my different sleep stages per hour.

The analysis measures when I’m awake, in deep sleep, light sleep and REM sleep. After sleeping in the ring for a few days, I noticed that my REM sleep was often down compared to my other sleep stages, so I decided to look into it so I can get the best sleep and rest possible this year.

To find out more, I looked into REM sleep, including what it is, how much you should get per night and how to improve it.

What is REM sleep?

REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement and it’s seen as the deepest stage of the sleep cycle. As the name states, REM sleep is characterised by rapid eye movements, and is the stage where your brain activity, heart rate, breathing and blood flow increases, although your body stays limp.

During REM sleep, this is the time when your brain is at its most active during sleep, and is when you’ll experience the most intense and vivid dreams. Due to this activeness, REM sleep is when your brain works to process emotions and memories, and develops to help with your focus, readiness and emotional regulation the next day.

When does REM sleep happen?

REM sleep is considered the final stage of the sleep cycle, but what many people don’t realise is that you go through multiple sleep cycles throughout the night – see 5 sleep stages you need to know about for more information on this.

With REM sleep, its first stage happens around 60-90 minutes of you falling asleep, and it lasts roughly 10 minutes. From there, you go through the other stages of your sleep cycle which takes around 90-120 minutes, before returning to REM sleep for a second phase, and so on – you’re expected to get through 4-6 sleep cycles while you sleep so you could experience REM sleep six times throughout the night. Each REM sleep period is longer than the last one, and can last up to an hour.

How much REM sleep should you get per night?

Now that you understand how REM sleep works, how much should you actually get per night?

Most adults need at least two hours of REM sleep each night, which takes up roughly 20% of your total sleep. Babies and children need more REM sleep as their brains are still developing. It can be hard to track how much REM sleep you’re getting, which is why I’d recommend a sleep tracker as it breaks it down for you.

In general, if you get a short amount of sleep per night, your REM sleep will be cut down, too. As REM is the stage of sleep where your brain is working on emotions, memories and focus, you’ll notice a difference if your REM sleep has been lacking. For example, you may find it hard to concentrate or remember things the next day, which is usually a sign that you didn’t get enough REM sleep.

How do I improve my REM sleep?

To improve your REM sleep, it’s important to stick to a sleep schedule where you’re getting roughly the same amount of sleep per night. The more sleep you get, the more often you’ll visit the REM sleep stage, so try to get between 7-9 hours of sleep a night, or whatever works for you.

The key rules of sleep hygiene, like exercising in the day, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, and removing screens from your bedroom can also help improve your REM sleep.