r/science Oct 08 '24

Neuroscience Brain’s waste-clearance pathways revealed for the first time. Wastes include proteins such as amyloid and tau, which have been shown to form clumps and tangles in brain images of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

https://news.ohsu.edu/2024/10/07/brains-waste-clearance-pathways-revealed-for-the-first-time
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u/AccountForTF2 Oct 08 '24

I want to know the sleep connection. Human sleep is so.. Enigmatic? To us. But it controls our thinking and mental clarity so much.

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u/watermelonkiwi Oct 08 '24

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/22/1198910426/brain-waste-sleep-removal-amyloid-alzheimer-toxins   

Basically during sleep your body pumps spinal fluid through your brain, washing out the waste, and then delivering it to the liver and kidneys. Pretty cool, seems we’ve finally figured out sleep’s function.

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u/CausticSofa Oct 09 '24

The body scans that show the process in effect are crazy too. It’s like your body is running a dishwasher cycle while you sleep.

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u/ScreenTricky4257 Oct 10 '24

Similar to a dishwasher it runs multiple cycles instead of one steady process. I believe each cycle runs ~90 minutes.