Now you will have a real reason to get some more sleep or sleep in a bit longer. Sleep has proven to possess more wonderful powers than those already known. When sleeping, the brain removes the garbage and useless informations that accumulate during our awake-time. This may provide clues to curing Alzheimer’s disease, as well as other dementia-related disorders. This miraculous purging has only been detected in the brains of sleeping mice, but scientists believe that this phenomenon also occurs to people. Kushida, the medical director of the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, has said, “sleep would perhaps be even more important in slowing the progression of further damage.”
Although much debate has erupted over the basic purpose of sleep, ranging from processing memory and saving energy, to regulating the body, one consequence of not getting enough sleep is having trouble learning and making decisions, as well as a slower reaction time. The latest research by scientists at the University of Rochester has added more to the already well-established view on sleep: When we sleep, our brains clean out the overflowing junk it contains.
Scientists have injected beta-amyloid, the substance that builds up during Alzheimer’s disease, into the brains of mice and have discovered that beta-amyloid is removed much more rapidly during our slumber than while we are awake. A viable reason for this occurrence is that the brain cells shrink in size during sleep, so the gaps between the neurons increase, which allows waste to pass through without resistance. This “plumbing” system also works in dogs and baboons, which has led scientists to believe that it should also work in humans. This newly discovered information has provided new light to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-caused diseases.
