Why Your Brain Needs Sleep More Than You Think

We all know those people around us who can survive off 4 hours to even 5 hours of sleep and somehow magically wake the next day looking fresh as a daisy. It may look like, instead of sleeping, they are able to get more work done or study more. But what if I told you slowly their brains will start to not even remember the information that they are trying to retain?

Here are 3 things our brain does when we sleep that is essential to our brain health

1. Brain Cleaning: Our bodies don’t just flush out waste through going to the bathroom. We also flush out waste in our brains. While we sleep, our brain uses a specialized waste removal network (glymphatic system) to flush out harmful proteins like tau proteins and also toxic metabolic products like amyloid-beta. During this process, our brain cells shrink about 60%, which creates extra space between them. A fluid called cerebrospinal fluid pumps through the brain tissue and washes out all the harmful waste proteins that accumulated throughout the day. The cerebrospinal fluid carries the waste out of the brain and into the bloodstream to be filtered by the liver and the kidney. Brain waste can exit the body in three different ways. Some of it is filtered through the kidneys and eventually leaves the body as urine. Another way is that brain waste can also be filtered by the liver, which dumps the waste into bile. Most surprisingly, the cerebrospinal fluid can carry out the waste to the lungs, where it filters the waste and turns it into carbon dioxide that we can exhale.
2. You know the kids who always brags that they pulled an all nighter studying or playing video games? Well lucky for you, that is not something that they should be bragging about because even if they pull an all nighter trying to study more, it is unlikely that the information will stick in their brains. In deep sleep the brain locks in factual information that we processed and learned throughout the day by moving those memories and information from the temporary areas, like the hippocampus, to safe, long term zones like the neocortex. During the dream sleep phase, the brain handles creative thinking and emotional processing, and complex skills so that you can bridge together new information to the memories and facts that are already cemented. Sleep is almost like a reset for your mind, as it clears space so that you can focus and have a fresh mind the next day.
3. In our daily lives we there will be times when the teacher assigns extra homework, when your boss decides to book you for another shift, or playing against an annoying opponent. However, all those times require us to keep our composure. And sleep can help with that! When we sleep our brain restores connectivity between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. This all helps balance key chemicals in charge of our mood and process emotional memories without any stress hormones. Fun fact: Without enough sleep your amygdala is 60% more reactive leading to big emotional outbursts over small issues. So get your sleep to not be cranky!

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