January 2016
How Sleep's WASH CYCLE Cleans the Brain:
NIH Research  
  
 
The brain has a "WASH CYCLE" during sleep. The results point to a potential new role for sleep in health and disease.









Cerebrospinal fluid (blue) flows through the brain and clears out toxins through a series of channels that expand during sleep. Maiken Nedergaard
  

Scientists and philosophers have long wondered why people sleep and how it affects the brain.

Sleep is important for storing memories. It also has a restorative function.

Lack of sleep impairs reasoning, problem-solving, and attention to detail, among other effects. However, the mechanisms behind these sleep benefits have been unknown.
Dr. Maiken Nedergaard and her colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center recently discovered a system that drains waste products from the brain during sleep.

Cerebrospinal fluid, a clear liquid surrounding the brain and spinal cord, moves through the brain along a series of channels that surround blood vessels. This is the brain's "wash cycle". The system is managed by the brain's glial cells, and so the researchers called it the "glymphatic system".

The scientists also reported that the glymphatic system can help remove a toxic protein called beta-amyloid from brain tissue. Beta-amyloid is renowned for accumulating in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Beta-amyloid can also bleed causing strokes.
The study raises the possibility that certain neurological disorders might be prevented or treated by manipulating the glymphatic system and the "wash cycle".

"These findings have significant implications for treating 'dirty brain' diseases like Alzheimer's," Dr. Nedergaard says.
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