I’ve been thinking about sleep. We know experts say that we’re supposed to get 7-8 hours a night. We know it helps to rest when we’re tired. But I learned this week that sleep is also when our brain’s “garbage truck” appears.
What does that mean? Harvard health explains it like this:
“One of the most interesting discoveries in the past decade is that the brain has a ‘waste management system.’ Like people, in order to have the energy to do their work, brain cells need to eat (to absorb, primarily, sugar and oxygen). And, as in people, meals lead to wastes that need to be disposed of.
The waste management system (called the glymphatic system) is a series of tubes that carry fresh fluid into the brain, mix the fresh fluid with the waste-filled fluid that surrounds the brain cells, and then flush the mix out of the brain and into the blood. This occurs primarily during deep sleep.”
Like most things in our world, as energy is expended waste is produced. Apparently, this occurs even in our brain.
Paying attention to when we sleep and how much we get is a great way to feel better, because miraculously that’s when we not only rest, but we remove what our brain no longer needs.
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