Other safety precautions are that you should never massage a dog that is suffering from fever, shock or cancer. Also, as you massage, avoid any areas of unexplained swelling. Also, remember that massage is not a substitute for proper veterinary care, it is a compliment to it, and it has many benefits for their health.
Some studies have shown that your deep sleep should at least be 20% of your overall sleep. It means that since most adults need 8-9 hours of sleep, they will need about 1.6-1.8 hours of deep sleep to feel fully functional next day. However, the time of deep sleep is changed and that's mainly due to the change in the sleep need of different group of people. For instance: Age Group.
Usually sleepers pass through five stages: 1, 2, 3, 4 and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. These stages progress cyclically from 1 through REM then begin again with stage 1. A complete sleep cycle takes an average of 90 to 110 minutes, with each stage lasting between 5 to 15 minutes. The first sleep cycles each night have relatively short REM sleeps and long periods of deep sleep but later in the night, REM periods lengthen and deep sleep time decreases.