If your Oura Ring, WHOOP, or Apple Watch tells you that your REM sleep was low last night, should you actually worry?
A new study involving 95,559 UK Biobank participants makes that question much more interesting. Researchers found that people with higher amounts of REM sleep had lower risks of 83 diseases across 12 disease categories during follow-up. The associations included heart failure, atrial fibrillation, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and parkinsonism.
But there is a major catch.
The study does not prove that getting more REM sleep prevents 83 diseases. It found an association between naturally occurring sleep patterns and later health outcomes. That distinction matters.
What did the 95,000-person study actually find?
The September 2026 study used wrist-worn accelerometer data to estimate sleep stages in 95,559 people. Participants were followed for a median of 8.9 years.
Researchers found that an increase of 47.6 minutes in REM sleep, roughly the difference between the 25th and 75th percentiles in this analysis, was associated with a lower risk of 83 diseases.
Some associations were striking. The hazard ratio was 0.74 for heart failure, 0.83 for atrial fibrillation, 0.54 for dementia, and 0.69 for Alzheimer’s disease. Parkinsonism had an even lower hazard ratio of 0.20.
Those figures do not mean your personal disease risk will fall by exactly those percentages if you somehow add 47.6 minutes of REM sleep.
The researchers were observing patterns in a large population. They were not assigning people to sleep more or less REM sleep in a controlled trial.
That is why REM sleep disease prevention needs careful wording. The findings are important, but they are not a prescription to increase your REM percentage.
Why does REM sleep matter?
REM, or rapid eye movement sleep, is one of the two broad phases of sleep. During REM, the brain becomes highly active, breathing and heart rate can become more variable, and vivid dreaming commonly occurs.
Sleep also runs in cycles. REM periods tend to become longer later in the night.
That detail is easy to miss.
If you regularly cut your sleep short, you may be removing part of the night when REM normally becomes more prominent. So when people ask how to get more REM sleep, the first answer is surprisingly basic: give yourself enough time to sleep.
The new research also found that total sleep duration was associated with disease risk. For 69 disease outcomes with significant non-linear relationships, the estimated minimum-risk duration was mainly between 6 and 8 hours. Very short sleep, particularly below five hours, showed the broadest range of adverse associations.
Established sleep guidance still matters more than chasing a specific REM percentage. Adults are generally advised to get at least seven hours of sleep regularly.
So, how can you get more REM sleep?
No proven button forces your brain into a larger REM stage tonight.
Instead, focus on habits that support normal sleep architecture.
1. Give yourself enough time to sleep
If you regularly sleep five or six hours because of work, late-night scrolling, or an early alarm, increasing your REM percentage is probably the wrong target.
Protect your total sleep opportunity first.
This is the foundation for getting more REM sleep because REM periods generally become longer during later sleep cycles.
2. Keep your sleep schedule consistent
Your circadian rhythm is your body’s roughly 24-hour biological timing system. It helps coordinate when you feel sleepy and when you become alert.
Going to bed and waking at completely different times from one day to the next can make sleep less predictable.
Try to keep your wake time reasonably consistent, including on weekends.
3. Get daylight and move during the day
Daylight helps anchor the body’s internal clock. Regular physical activity can also support better sleep.
A morning or lunchtime walk gives you both daylight and movement without turning bedtime into another task to optimise.
If evening exercise leaves you feeling alert, finish vigorous workouts earlier.
4. Protect the hours before bedtime
Bright light, work messages, heavy meals and stimulating activities can make it harder to settle into sleep.
Give yourself a quieter transition into bed. Keep the bedroom cool, dark and quiet, and reduce bright artificial light before bedtime.
This is not a special REM trick. It is basic sleep care, which is exactly why it is more useful than chasing a supposedly perfect sleep hack.
5. Investigate persistent sleep problems
What if you spend eight hours in bed but your tracker repeatedly reports poor sleep, frequent awakenings, or unusually low REM?
Do not immediately buy another supplement or gadget.
Heavy snoring, witnessed pauses in breathing, gasping during sleep, persistent insomnia, restless legs or major daytime sleepiness can point to a sleep disorder that needs medical evaluation.
A clinician may review your sleep pattern, medicines, caffeine and alcohol use, medical history, and symptoms. If necessary, a sleep study can directly measure brain activity, eye movements, breathing, heart rate, and other signals.
What do wearable REM scores actually tell you?
This is where things get confusing.
Consumer wearables estimate sleep stages using sensors and algorithms. A clinical sleep study uses physiological measurements, including brain activity and eye movements, to classify sleep stages.
So do not panic because your watch says you had 17% REM one night and 22% the next.
Look at longer-term patterns instead.
Are you sleeping enough? Are you waking repeatedly? Do you feel rested? Are you excessively sleepy during the day?
Those questions tell you much more than one isolated REM score.
For anyone researching REM sleep disease prevention, this distinction is especially important. A wearable can help you notice a pattern, but it cannot establish that low REM is causing a disease.
What are the real benefits of REM sleep?
The benefits of REM sleep extend beyond the associations reported in this new study. REM is a normal part of healthy sleep architecture and is involved in brain processes linked with memory and emotional processing.
But more is not automatically better.
Your body needs a balance of sleep stages, adequate total sleep, and reasonably regular timing. The new findings make REM sleep scientifically interesting, but they do not turn REM percentage into a medical target.
And that is probably the biggest takeaway.
If you are wondering how to get more REM sleep, do not start by trying to manipulate one number on your smartwatch. Start by protecting the whole night’s sleep.
When should you talk to a doctor?
If you regularly struggle to fall asleep, repeatedly wake during the night, wake up choking or gasping, snore heavily, or remain unusually sleepy during the day despite spending enough time in bed, speak with a healthcare professional.
Persistent sleep problems can have many causes, including sleep disorders, medicines, mental health conditions, and other medical problems.
If your tracker keeps showing an unusual pattern, mention it to your doctor, but do not treat the device’s REM estimate as a diagnosis.
FAQs
Can increasing REM sleep prevent disease?
Not based on this study alone. The research found associations between higher REM sleep and lower incidence of 83 diseases. It did not prove that deliberately increasing REM sleep prevents them.
How much REM sleep should adults get?
There is no single REM target that applies to every adult. Sleep needs vary with age and individual factors. Getting enough total sleep regularly is a more established goal.
Is 20% REM sleep normal?
REM percentage varies between individuals and can change with age, sleep duration, and the method used to measure sleep. One wearable reading should not be treated as a medical diagnosis.
Why is my REM sleep low?
Short sleep, disrupted sleep, irregular schedules, alcohol, certain medicines, stress, and sleep disorders can affect sleep architecture. A persistent pattern matters more than one unusual night.
Can alcohol affect REM sleep?
Yes. Alcohol can alter normal sleep architecture and contribute to sleep disruption later in the night. Regular alcohol use as a sleep aid is worth discussing with a healthcare professional.
Should I take a supplement to increase REM sleep?
There is no established supplement that should be taken simply to raise REM sleep based on this study. If poor sleep continues, finding the underlying reason is more useful than chasing a higher wearable score.
