Why do we go to sleep? To clean our brains, say US scientists

[n2doc]

Scientists in the US claim to have a new explanation for why we sleep: in the hours spent slumbering, a rubbish disposal service swings into action that cleans up waste in the brain.

Through a series of experiments on mice, the researchers showed that during sleep, cerebral spinal fluid is pumped around the brain, and flushes out waste products like a biological dishwasher.

The process helps to remove the molecular detritus that brain cells churn out as part of their natural activity, along with toxic proteins that can lead to dementia when they build up in the brain, the researchers say.

Maiken Nedergaard, who led the study at the University of Rochester, said the discovery might explain why sleep is crucial for all living organisms. "I think we have discovered why we sleep," Nedergaard said. "We sleep to clean our brains."

more

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/17/sleep-cleans-our-brains-say-scientists?CMP=twt_fd

[Kablooie]

1. Is that why we have so many dirty thoughts?

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Only those who stay up too late

[mike_c]

2. not certain I completely agree....

I mean, I don't doubt their data necessarily-- it's just that the fact that waste disposal happens during sleep is not the same as "we sleep to clean our brains." Other things happen when we sleep too, including similar physiological maintenance elsewhere and of course, dreaming, which I think has strong adaptive significance that might be just as important as physiological maintenance.

[Lionel Mandrake]

4. "sleep is crucial for all living organisms" ?

I don't believe that sponges, bacteria, fungi, algae, or green plants need to sleep.

Plants may go dormant, but that's a whole 'nother story.