We all know by now that we need 8 hours of sleep every night. Of course, you think it’s okay every now and then to stay up late and still make it to work on time the next morning. You can manage for a little while but then it catches up to you. You start to feel drowsy during the day, have trouble thinking or have brain fog, and then you start having little memory lapses. The decline is slow but progressive. The more sleep you lose, the more it affects your brain.
P. Murali Doraiswamy, M.D. is a world leader in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychiatry. His research focuses on the aging brain. He explains that your brain has to complete specific functions while we sleep that are critical to our overall health. These functions include:
Detoxification
The glymphatic system, a newly discovered area of the brain, works to detoxify your brain while sleeping. This process helps clear out amyloid plaque which is present in Alzheimer’s. It is possible that sleep deprivation can cause this plaque to buildup and may be a contributing factor to Alzheimer’s.
Archiving
Every day our brains encounter thousands of stimuli. During sleep, the brain functions as the librarian of these stimuli to organize them for our use. This is where we really see that sleep deprivation has its most notable impact. We feel fuzzy headed and cannot make sense out of some of the sensory stimulus.
Memories
The chemical acetylcholine is necessary for creating memories. It is also necessary for us to dream while sleeping. Alzheimer’s destroys this chemical and therefore the ability to dream. Adequate sleep is necessary to keep this chemical in production.
The delicate circuitry of the brain requires sleep in order to function properly. We need to respect the nature of our beings – sleep is a requirement for good brain health. Just as quality food and water are necessary for our overall health, sleep is equally as important.
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