Sleep researchers around the world are continually revealing some new and interesting facts about sleep and how much potential it holds affecting our physical and mental health. The significance of sleep in fixing memories and helping learning abilities was already known, but some more interesting facts have surfaced quite recently. Having a better and deeper sleep is a must for every human being and if you are facing problems in having a deep sleep then you may get some helping tips for deep sleep here. Now have a look at what studies say about Sleep and Memory.
Waste Removal System of Brain: One of the Basic Reasons Behind Sleep
The latest in this regard comes from a team of sleep experts in the US. According to them, the activation of “waste removal system” of the brain can be one of the most fundamental reasons behind the whole process of sleep, as stated in their study published in the “Journals Science”.
Glymphatic System: Brain’s Network of Plumbing Pipes
This latest discovery by a US team from the University of Rochester Medical Centre led by Dr Maiken Nedergaard further builds up on last year’s discovery revealing the brain’s network of plumbing pipes – referred to as the “glymphatic system” responsible for carrying the waste material out of brain. Earlier, the imagery of mice brain showed about 10-times increase in the activity of glymphatic system, responsible for draining the waste material out of brain.
Operation Cleanup!
This can relate very well to the recent discovery of the US team that reported shrinking of brain cells during sleep, resulting in widening the gap that otherwise exists between neurons, facilitating the fluid to wash clean the brain. It is believed that the glial cells, responsible for keeping alive the nerve cells, shrink during the process of sleeping, which adds to the interstitial space (the space between brain tissues), assisting increased fluid to be pumped in to wash away the toxins of the brain.
Dr Nedergaard refers to it as a “vital” function needed for staying alive, but one where brain seems incapable of going through it while awake. Talking to the BBC, she also stated that she found herself speculating that brain losses very much energy while detoxifying itself, which also appeared beyond brain’s power to carry on compatibly in conjunction with processing information.
To Be or Not to Be!
According to her, the brain withholds only a limited amount of energy at its disposal, which presumably forces it to choose only one of the two differently functioning states – awake and normally functioning or asleep and detoxifying. She explains it like a house party, where the host can either entertain guests or run a cleanup operation through the house, but unable to really perform both the functions at once.
Newer Avenues of Research
Subject to further detailed studies, the researchers also talked of possibilities of certain brain diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson taking place due to problems in cleaning mechanism of the brain. Commenting on the research, Alzheimer’s Research UK (a charity organization) declared such findings to be a potentially newer avenue for investigation, though also stressing on significant further research studies investigating the possibility of problems in waste management systems of brain related to diseases like dementia.
To conclude, the significance of sound sleep further increases with such studies and the truth is that we need much more of them if we really want to be able to learn more about this complex machine that the brain is.
