Slashdot Mirror
Sleep Is the Ultimate Brainwasher
sciencehabit writes "Every night since humans first evolved, we have made what might be considered a baffling, dangerous mistake. Despite the once-prevalent threat of being eaten by predators, and the loss of valuable time for gathering food, accumulating wealth, or having sex, we go to sleep. Scientists have long speculated and argued about why we devote roughly a third of our lives to sleep, but with little concrete data to support any particular theory. Now, new evidence (abstract, full text paywalled) has refreshed a long-held hypothesis: During sleep, the brain cleans itself."
During sleep, the Cerebrospinal fluid fills channels in the brain, collecting waste products. It uses a lot of energy, leading to the hypothesis that the brain can't clean up waste while also processing sensory input.
I wonder how well this accounts for the extremely variable sleeping periods of various animals? See http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chasleep.html .
Humans suffer from major memory leaks and must be shut down periodically due to poor garbage collection.
Many neurological diseases—from Alzheimer's disease to stroke and dementia—are associated with sleep disturbances, Nedergaard notes. The study suggests that lack of sleep could have a causal role, by allowing the byproducts to build up and cause brain damage. "This could open a lot of debate for shift workers, who work during the nighttime,” Nedergaard predicts. "You probably develop damage if you don’t get your sleep."
Beta amyloids are specifically mentioned, those make up the plaques that are found in Alzheimers.
Worth pointing out that the effects of sleep deprivation are well known, this is simply trying to explain HOW those symptoms occur.
Apparently, brain poop which may lead to many brain farts.
I went almost a week without sleep and it definitely screws you up. On day 5, I was hallucinating that there were people around me and seeing things out of the corner of my eye. I had a constant fuzzy feeling and had very little energy. It was an interesting experiment and it was not easy to get to sleep. It took me over a month to get back into a proper rhythm.
Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
For teenagers, it's more like a cron job running rm -rf /knowledge/school/exam_answers/*
...with a better word than "brainwashing?" Since that already means something that does not match the contents of the article.
BEEP BOOP I am a robot can't detect a joke.
Brainwashing is a perfect word to use here since that's exactly what's happening.
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
...with a better word than "brainwashing?" Since that already means something that does not match the contents of the article.
Agree. A "dirty mind" joke would have gone down far better.
I agree that it doesn't seem like night or day would matter much.
The second point, you're responding to a new hypothesis put forth by the researcher based on the current findings. The current findings are only that it's cleared out during sleep, not saying that low neural activity is the reason. That part is just speculation. I'd suggest it's probably more complex, that the glial cleaning activity causes abnormal neuronal activity when it's in that mode. Perhaps the reason it happens during sleep is because if it happened while you were awake, you'd hallucinate, act even more irrationally and irregularly etc. Perhaps that's part of the reason that dreams are so bizarre. Pure speculation.
You're possibly setting yourself up for Alzheimer's. It's been known for a long time that buildup of amyloid plaques is worsened by lack of sleep and vice versa. (Sleep issues show up long before other symptoms of Alzheimer's). This provide a mechanism by showing how the plaques are regularly removed by good sleep.
For extra fun, sleep is also when myelin-repairing oligodendrocytes kick into gear. You probably won't develop MS from not sleeping, but it isn't good for your long-term health, as that function is necessary to the survival of brain cells. This impacts mood, memory, and moral judgement.
Oh, and then there's the fact that lack of sleep disrupts the ratio of leptin and ghrelin in your body, making you far hungrier when awake. This is part of the reason that lack of sleep is correlated with obesity. You also have lower testosterone (impacting your virility) & higher cortisol levels (wrecking your memory and weakening your immune system). Other hormone changes put you at higher risks of type 2 diabetes.
In short, you're killing yourself. Seek help if this isn't voluntary. Prioritize getting more sleep.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").