Sleep: Your Brain's Built-in Nighttime Detox
Understand how sleep cleanses your brain and keeps you sharp.
There are many things one can do to be effective and one of them is to properly rest. A talk by Neuroscientist, Dr. Els van der Helm, at InsurTech Insights Europe revealed some interesting facts about something we often only pay attention to when we have problems with it: Sleep.
According to Els van der Helm, if you need an alarm clock to wake up and fight tiredness when sitting through something boring, you may suffer from sleep debt.
Another scientist, Laura D. Lewis, shares in The Interconnected Causes and Consequences of Sleep in the Brain1 that missing a single night of sleep results “in memory, mood, and attentional impairments the next day.” She makes a compelling case about how sleep plays a key role in maintaining neural health to prevent long-term consequences such as neurodegeneration and inflammation.
Why Sleep is Scheduled Maintainance for the Brain
While further research is required, the current understanding points to the need for removing the waste which the brain produces during wakefulness. When we sleep waste production is not only slowed down but also gives the brain time to flush out the accumulated metabolic waste.
Interestingly, during the restful phase of sleep, also known as non-rapid eye movement (NREM2) sleep, brain activity slows down, allowing an increase in cerebrospinal fluid which increases the effectiveness of waste removal. In contrast, if we have little restful sleep, the clearance of waste is interrupted, leading to impaired cognition as stated above. Van der Helm makes this more vivid by stating in her talk that an eight-hour sleep debt is equal to a blood alcohol level of 0.1%3.
With a prolonged lack of restful sleep, the accumulation of waste in our brain affects arousal regulatory circuits which induce sleep, further reducing the sleep that is so much needed for our health and cognition, fueling a vicious cycle with an increased risk of neurogenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s.4
Meditation as a Potential Waste Removal Booster
Restful sleep is connected to slow wave activity such as delta waves and other patterns of neural oscillations associated with deep sleep stages. Researchers are intrigued by the potential of meditation to support waste removal in the brain. Peter Wostyn explored this question in this article Can meditation-based approaches improve the cleansing power of the glymphatic system?5 He suggests that meditation-based approaches, such as immersive sound meditation can promote glymphatic function, which is essential for brain waste clearance and overall brain health by inducing slow wave activity in the brain.
A few minutes of meditation may help us relax and improve our overall brain health. It won’t, however, replace a night of a deeply restful sleep. Els van der Helm therefore promotes creating better habits during the day and right before going to be and at the time of waking up. This way you are best equipped to keep up not only with demanding work assignments but also with your teams.
Improving Habits for Improved Sleep
Here is a list of a few ideas of what habits help arrive at a restful sleep and an effective waste clearance in the brain:
Follow your circadian rhythm
Go to bed and wake up every day at the same time
No snoozing
No screens 30 minutes before bedtime
Mediate for five minutes before bed or during the day
No caffeine eight hours before bed
Physical exercise
Journaling before going to bed to dump excessive thinking
Use a gratitude journal to intentionally focus on what you are grateful for
I also found the article Circadian Rhythm - What it is, What Shapes it, and Why it's Fundamental to Getting Quality Sleep6 by the Sleep Foundation insightful.
Lewis LD. The interconnected causes and consequences of sleep in the brain. Science. 2021 Oct 29;374(6567):564-568. doi: 10.1126/science.abi8375. Epub 2021 Oct 28. PMID: 34709917; PMCID: PMC8815779. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8815779/
Williamson AM, Feyer AM. Moderate sleep deprivation produces impairments in cognitive and motor performance equivalent to legally prescribed levels of alcohol intoxication. Occup Environ Med. 2000 Oct;57(10):649-55. doi: 10.1136/oem.57.10.649. PMID: 10984335; PMCID: PMC1739867. ttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1739867/
Lewis LD. The interconnected causes and consequences of sleep in the brain. Science. 2021 Oct 29;374(6567):564-568. doi: 10.1126/science.abi8375. Epub 2021 Oct 28. PMID: 34709917; PMCID: PMC8815779. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8815779/
Wostyn P, Goddaer P. Can meditation-based approaches improve the cleansing power of the glymphatic system? Explor Neuroprot Ther. 2022;2:110–7. https://doi.org/10.37349/ent.2022.0002, https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/ent/Article/100422