Is Your Brain Getting Enough Sleep for Its Full “Wash Cycle”?

Your body is wonderful made to self-clean. You drink water, and it flushes out toxins. You breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. You eat healthful food, and the body extracts nutrients and uses the fiber to sweep out toxins. There’s a continual “wash cycle” going on inside your body…including your brain.What the brain needs in order to complete its “wash cycle” is plenty of restorative sleep. According to researchers, your brain needs 7 hours of sleep each night to complete the “wash cycle.”

While studying mice and baboons, researchers discovered that, during sleep, brain cells shrink and make room for a dramatic flow of cerebrospinal fluid to flush through the brain, washing away harmful waste proteins that build up during waking hours.

And when the animals wake up, the brain cells enlarge again and the flow between cells slows to a trickle. “It’s almost like opening and closing a faucet. It’s that dramatic,” said Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Rochester. She also added, “It’s probably not possible for the brain to both clean itself and at the same time [be] aware of the surroundings and talk and move and so on.”

Researchers have found that one of the wastes removed from the brain during sleep is beta amyloid, which forms sticky plaques associated with Alzheimer’s. While this hasn’t been observed in humans yet, it’s reasonable to conclude that a similar cleaning process occurs in us. If so, that would help explain a number of problems and illnesses related to sleep deprivation also. When you skimp on sleep, overall blood flow decreases in your brain, disrupting your ability to think, remember, and concentrate. All good reasons to get your sleep and clear out the waste!

High-quality sleep is essential for optimal health. I’ve discovered that Neuro Emotional Technique is very effective for clearing stress and tension that is keeping you awake at night. If you live near Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA please contact my Jantzen Beach office and schedule an appointment. Online therapy is also available, if that works best for your busy schedule.