And yet another reason to get enough sleep is because your brain needs to do its housework. That’s right.
When you go to sleep, your brain cells, or neurons, shrink up and the clear fluid that runs up and down your spine and in and out of your brain flows faster around those brain cells and cleans out all the debris you’ve built up during the day.
Why should you care? Because if you don’t clean out the beta amyloid, it will collect just like dust bunnies and you’ll come down with Alzheimer’s.
Plus, when you’re sleep-deprived, the production of beta amyloid increases, making the situation worse.
Finally, there are two different kinds of cells that eat up dying neurons. When you don’t sleep, they turn into serial killers and end up eating the living neurons and the dying.
These clean-up cells are also involved in Alzheimer’s and other diseases that cause deterioration of the brain.
Now, shut down the computer and go to bed!
Claudia
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