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Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

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Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#21

Post by pnathan »

bitexploder wrote: post #15

The actual research is quite interesting. Sleep disorders themselves are fascinating. There is evidence that TBI (traumatic brain injury) can cause lasting sleep cycle disruption. Perhaps sleep disruption and TBI is a much bigger factor in the lasting impact of TBI than previously thought. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3482689/ ). Article review: This is pretty good science reporting, actually provid…

Yes, "toxic" and "toxins" are incredibly vague. I loathe the use of those words, as they are both scary and nearly meaningless.

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#22

Post by bryondowd »

mabbo wrote: post #3

> The process is important because what's getting washed away during sleep are waste proteins that are toxic to brain cells, Nedergaard says. Evolution found a nice little optimum in sleep that works pretty well- use less energy during a time of the day that isn't a very efficient time to be awake while also cleaning out the brain. This could be interesting for future research. Could we find chemical means to remove…

There's an interesting concept. I wonder what the trade-off would be. How much efficiency would it cost to clean the brain continually rather than in a dedicated sleep cycle? Would it even be possible to process these toxins while maintaining consciousness? I'm sure there could be huge benefits for many modern lifestyles to trade heavily on reaction speed and/or lightly on IQ for 50% more waking hours. Or even 25% more waking hours, if you just cut the need for sleep in half, over the long term.

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#25

Post by csallen »

jpm_sd wrote: post #23
throwaway6497 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which schools are these?

MIT

I once read that collective sleep deprivation is "not a thing." After graduating from MIT with a particularly grueling and sleepless final semester, I slept 12 hours a day for two weeks straight. (I normally sleep 6-7 hours before waking up on my own.)

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#26

Post by jacquesm »

ramshanker wrote: post #7

Wild analogy.... Inference machines cleanup the neutral model itself when put to relax. Wait, are there any Neural Nets out there, which produce toxic "weights" to be discarded later, If not than we are far from copying the real glucose based neural networks. /Imagination

> Wait, are there any Neural Nets out there, which produce toxic "weights" to be discarded later

That's what 'dropout' is for ;)

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#27

Post by mrzool »

bryondowd wrote: post #22
mabbo wrote: post #3

> The process is important because what's getting washed away during sleep are waste proteins that are toxic to brain cells, Nedergaard says. Evolution found a nice little optimum in sleep that works pretty well- use less energy during a time of the day that isn't a very efficient time to be awake while also cleaning out the brain. This could be interesting for future research. Could we find chemical means to remove…

There's an interesting concept. I wonder what the trade-off would be. How much efficiency would it cost to clean the brain continually rather than in a dedicated sleep cycle? Would it even be possible to process these toxins while maintaining consciousness? I'm sure there could be huge benefits for many modern lifestyles to trade heavily on reaction speed and/or lightly on IQ for 50% more waking hours. Or even 25% mo…

Why force things? I don't want 50% more waking hours. I enjoy my sleep tremendously.

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#28

Post by nsxwolf »

pnathan wrote: post #21
bitexploder wrote: post #15

The actual research is quite interesting. Sleep disorders themselves are fascinating. There is evidence that TBI (traumatic brain injury) can cause lasting sleep cycle disruption. Perhaps sleep disruption and TBI is a much bigger factor in the lasting impact of TBI than previously thought. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3482689/ ). Article review: This is pretty good science reporting, actually provid…

Yes, "toxic" and "toxins" are incredibly vague. I loathe the use of those words, as they are both scary and nearly meaningless.

When I see "toxins" I just stop reading. I assume the article is an ad for a juice cleanse.

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#29

Post by gdubs »

I'm currently reading Arianna Huffington's "The Sleep Revolution". If you're interested in more stuff like this, it's pretty good. It's definitely made me more mindful of winding down and night and getting plenty of sleep.

One thing in particular that stood out is the rise in cortisol associated with lack-of-sleep, and cortisol's relationship to gaining fat; having hit a couple of rocky weeks sleep due to young kids at home, this was particularly relevant to me.

I now rank sleep as pinnacle in terms of health / fitness training, mental well-being, creativity, etc.

Re: Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep (2013)

#30

Post by clort »

clavalle wrote: post #10
Overtonwindow wrote: post #5

Random thought: Could dreams be a result of the processing of toxins? In the same way some "toxins" cause us to hallucinate etc. so too could these toxins, as a side affect of processing?

>The team discovered that this increased flow was possible in part because when mice went to sleep, their brain cells actually shrank, making it easier for fluid to circulate. It could be that the brain needs to fire up for short periods in order to help pump the increased fluid out to prepare for another rinse.

What I thought of, when I read that was that perhaps the shrinking is related to reduced blood flow or reduced blood absorption (does blood pressure raise or lower during sleep?) and this is also related to sleep itself, in the same way that a chokehold causes unconsciousness by restricting the oxygen reaching the brain
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