How Sleep Improves Brain Functions Recent Researches
Sleep improves brain functions in many ways. Sleep deprivation can damage DNA and the body’s ability to repair the damaged cells. Sleep is essential for both cognition and maintenance of healthy brain function, and slow waves in neural activity contribute to memory consolidation.
Sleep and brain function
Sleeping is an integral part of our life, our brain generates two distinct types of sleep—slow-wave sleep (SWS), known as deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM), also called dreaming sleep.
Recent study by BU College of Engineering, Biomedical engineering and a Center for Systems Neuroscience suggested that liquid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow and slow-wave activity both help flush toxic, memory-impairing proteins from the brain. As people age, their brains often generate fewer slow waves. At the beginning of sleep, the neurons go quiet and a few seconds later, blood flows out of the head. Then, a watery liquid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flows in, wash through the brain in rhythmic, pulsing waves.
They explore how ageing might affect sleep’s flow of blood and CSF in the brain, the team plan to recruit older adults for their next study, as the 13 subjects in the current study were all between the ages of 23 and 33. The study says cerebrospinal fluid during non–rapid eye movement sleep clears metabolic waste products from the brain.
Deep sleep may be critical for your heart. It can also help clear the brain of toxins that play a role in Alzheimher’s disease. Staying mentally and physically active also appears to play a role in preventing cognitive impairment. People age 66 and older who got a hearing aid shortly after being diagnosed with hearing loss were less likely to receive a first-time diagnosis of dementia or depression, or be injured by a fall, in the following three years, a study published recently by the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and carried out by researchers from the University of Michigan found.
The recent study found that sleep is also associated with increased interstitial fluid volume and clearance of metabolic waste products. They discovered a coherent pattern of oscillating electrophysiological, hemodynamic, and CSF dynamics that appears during non–rapid eye movement sleep.