04-15-2024, 02:37 PM
Restful sleep seems everyone's aim. There's no denying that at times when you wake up you sometimes feel "especially" rested. Your mood may not change, your aches and pains will reassert themselves, but somehow... you feel better. This article might speak to why.
Multiple sources based upon a paper in Nature: Neuronal dynamics direct cerebrospinal fluid perfusion and brain clearance
But an easier read is from ArsTechnica: Sleeping more flushes junk out of the brain
Sleep is something like a soft reboot. We knew that slow brainwaves had something to do with restful sleep; researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have now found out why. When we are awake, our neurons require energy to fuel complex tasks such as problem-solving and committing things to memory. The problem is that debris gets left behind after they consume these nutrients. As we sleep, neurons use these rhythmic waves to help move cerebrospinal fluid through brain tissue, carrying out metabolic waste in the process.
Additionally, it is interesting to note that the substances which get eliminated during sleep have been associated with Alzheimer's.
Everything these neurons do creates metabolic waste, often in the form of protein fragments. Other studies have found that these fragments may contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The brain has to dispose of its garbage somehow, and it does this through what’s called the glymphatic system (no, that’s not a typo), which carries cerebrospinal fluid that moves debris out of the parenchyma through channels located near blood vessels. However, that still left the questions: What actually powers the glymphatic system to do this—and how? The WUSTL team wanted to find out.
Researchers had some interesting experiences discovering that certain anesthesia practices actually affect the efficiency of the process... Nice to see their open-minded enough to be sensitive to the fact that "how" one researches certain phenomenon can actually affect the results of your experiments. A comforting thought for me.
Multiple sources based upon a paper in Nature: Neuronal dynamics direct cerebrospinal fluid perfusion and brain clearance
But an easier read is from ArsTechnica: Sleeping more flushes junk out of the brain
Sleep is something like a soft reboot. We knew that slow brainwaves had something to do with restful sleep; researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have now found out why. When we are awake, our neurons require energy to fuel complex tasks such as problem-solving and committing things to memory. The problem is that debris gets left behind after they consume these nutrients. As we sleep, neurons use these rhythmic waves to help move cerebrospinal fluid through brain tissue, carrying out metabolic waste in the process.
Additionally, it is interesting to note that the substances which get eliminated during sleep have been associated with Alzheimer's.
Everything these neurons do creates metabolic waste, often in the form of protein fragments. Other studies have found that these fragments may contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The brain has to dispose of its garbage somehow, and it does this through what’s called the glymphatic system (no, that’s not a typo), which carries cerebrospinal fluid that moves debris out of the parenchyma through channels located near blood vessels. However, that still left the questions: What actually powers the glymphatic system to do this—and how? The WUSTL team wanted to find out.
Researchers had some interesting experiences discovering that certain anesthesia practices actually affect the efficiency of the process... Nice to see their open-minded enough to be sensitive to the fact that "how" one researches certain phenomenon can actually affect the results of your experiments. A comforting thought for me.
