Feeling a bit cranky after a sleepless night? It may be because your brain didn’t get a chance to flush out built-up toxins.
Scientists say that sleep is the mechanism through which the body flushes waste from the human brain. The brain’s method of waste removal – the glymphatic system – is highly active during sleep, clearing away toxins responsible for neurological disorders. It works by circulating cerebrospinal fluid throughout the brain tissue and flushing any resulting waste into the bloodstream, which then carries it to the liver for detoxification. The brain’s cells even reduce in size, allowing waste to be removed more effectively.
This nightly self-clean by the brain provides a compelling biological reason for the restorative power of sleep. “Sleep puts the brain in another state where we clean out all the byproducts of activity during the daytime,” said University of Rochester neurosurgeon Maiken Nedergaard. Those byproducts include beta-amyloid protein, clumps of which form plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
Staying up all night could prevent the brain from getting rid of these toxins as efficiently, and explain why sleep deprivation has such strong and immediate consequences. Too little sleep causes mental fog, crankiness, and increased risks of migraine and seizure.
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