During sleep, the brain expels toxins that accumulate throughout the day
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Sleeping pills may help you sleep, but the sleep you get may not be restorative. When the mice were given zolpidem, a drug commonly found in sleeping pills like Ambien, it prevented their brains from working effectively. Getting rid of waste while sleeping.
Sleep is crucial to removing waste from the brain. At night, a clear fluid called cerebrospinal fluid circulates around the brain tissue. Expel toxins Through a series of thin tubes known as Glymphatic system. Think of it like the dishwasher the brain runs while you sleep, he says Maiken Nedergaard At the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. However, the mechanism that drives fluids through this network has not yet been well understood.
Nedergaard and her colleagues implanted optical fibers in the brains of seven mice. By lighting up chemical compounds in the brain, the fibers allow them to track the flow of blood and cerebrospinal fluid during sleep.
They found that as levels of a molecule called norepinephrine (also called noradrenaline) rise, blood vessels in the brain constrict, reducing blood volume and allowing cerebrospinal fluid to rush into the brain. When norepinephrine levels decrease, blood vessels dilate, pushing cerebrospinal fluid out. In this way, fluctuations in norepinephrine during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep stimulate blood vessels to act as a pump for the eye. Glymphatic system“Nedergaard says.
This finding reveals that norepinephrine plays a crucial role in cleaning waste from the brain. Previous research has shown that while we sleep, our brains secrete norepinephrine in a slow, oscillating pattern. These norepinephrine waves occur during NREM, a sleep phase critical for memory, learning, and other cognitive functions.
Next, the researchers treated six mice with zolpidem, a sleep medication commonly sold under the brand names Ambien and Zolpimist. While the mice fell asleep faster than those treated with a placebo, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in their brains decreased by about 30% on average. In other words, “their brains are not cleaned well,” Nedergaard says.
Although the trial tested zolpidem, almost all sleeping pills inhibit norepinephrine production. This suggests that it may interfere with the brain’s ability to expel toxins.
It is too early to know whether these results will translate to humans. “The architecture of human sleep is still somewhat different from that of a mouse, but we have the same brain circuitry that was studied here,” he says. Laura Lewis At Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Some of these basic mechanisms likely apply to us as well.”
If sleeping pills interfere with the brain’s ability to detoxify during sleep, that means we must develop new sleep medications, Nedergaard says. Otherwise we risk getting worse Sleep problemswhich may worsen brain health in the process.
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