N1 Sleep

Sometimes called “active sleep”. The first stage of non-rapid eye movement. Lightest stage of sleep. On occasion this is accompanied by muscle spasms called hypnic jerks. Most spend around 2-5% of their sleep time during this stage.

Dreams may spontaneously occur at this stage. This stage may recur throughout and in between other stages of sleep. Any dreams in this state tend to be quite brief and non-narrative flashes of images and thoughts.

This can even occur when we are awake but very tired and meditative, and we fall into this state of light sleep very quickly and dream of an activity we may be engaged in (such as riding in a car).