Spring Clean Your Brain with Sleep

March 5, 2018

Spring has officially sprung, and for many of us, that means just one thing: Spring cleaning. While everyone understands the merits of cleaning around the house, did you know that sleep basically does the same thing for your brain every night? A breakthrough study recently conducted by neuroscientist Maiken Nedergaard revealed that sleep does much more for the brain than simply give it time to recharge. In fact, getting enough sleep could be the key to fighting off something like Alzheimer’s!

The Basics of Sleep

When you go to sleep, you enter what is called the sleep cycle, where your brain goes back and forth between two distinct kinds of sleep. Right after you drift off, you’re in slow-wave sleep (SWS), which gets its name from the large, slow brain waves that occur. It’s also characterized by relaxed muscles and slow, heavy breathing. Most experts say this type of sleep is when the body and mind recuperate from the stresses of the day.

Eventually, your brain enters what is called REM, or rapid eye movement sleep. This kind is not as well understood, but during it, the brain becomes highly active, and this is actually when we dream. A person’s breathing and heart rate become very erratic, and as the name indicates, the eyes move around very quickly (though they stay shut). Normally, you’ll switch between these two kinds of sleep every 90 to 110 minutes over the course of the night.

How the Brain Cleans Itself

Remember that study we mentioned earlier? Dr. Nedgaard wanted to better understand the purpose of REM sleep, so she observed the waking and sleeping brains of mice. What she found was that their brains actually entered a waste disposal mode after sleeping long enough, clearing out harmful proteins that build up between brain cells.

So what were the mice’s brains actually removing? The study showed that their sleeping brains worked to eliminate proteins such as beta-amyloid, which has been closely associated with Alzheimer’s. Experts now believe that when a person doesn’t get enough sleep for an extended amount of time, these kinds of proteins are allowed to build up in the brain, and this may eventually lead to neurodegenerative disease.

People with neurodegenerative diseases have often been shown to suffer from short sleep durations, meaning that their brains are missing out on this chance to clean themselves every night.

What This Means For You

Most sleep doctors agree that a healthy adult should get about 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Not only is this essential to helping the brain and body recover from the day, it may also be important to fighting off harmful neurological diseases!

So, if you’re getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night, start trying TONIGHT. If you have trouble getting enough sleep despite your best efforts, you may be suffering from an underlying sleep disorder such as sleep apnea. In that case, be sure to reach out for professional help so you can keep your brain nice and clean from one Spring to the next!

About the Author

Dr. Kenneth Mogell is a certified sleep dentist who has been providing sleep apnea treatment in Jupiter for over 30 years. At his practice, he uses comfortable, custom-made oral appliances to help patients get the restful sleep they need every night. To learn more about getting enough sleep and how he can help you overcome sleep apnea, contact him today.