Eli5: When we sleep, spinal fluid washes waste from our brain. What exactly is “waste” in the brain?
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The “waste” in our brain is a protein, specifically a protein called “beta-amyloid”.
The name may sound funny but, if left uncleared, a build up of this protein can cause Alzheimer’s disease. There are studies that show a direct link between lack of sleep and a development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Source: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/sleep-deprivation-increases-alzheimers-protein
If you don’t get proper amounts of sleep, cerebrospinal fluid is unable to wash the beta-amyloid proteins from the brain. Source: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-sleep-clears-brain
More research is being done on the importance of this “washing” mechanism that happens during sleep. They’ve also found a new way to check for Lewy body diseases (such as Lewy body dementia) by sampling cerebrospinal fluid for those proteins. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2965495/
Lewy body diseases are caused by a protein called “alpha-synuclein”. These proteins may also be “washed” away during sleep and end up in our cerebrospinal fluid which is why we’re able to check for them with a lumbar puncture.
Research is still being done in this area so we don’t have a whole picture idea of what’s actually going on. There may be more proteins and “waste” being “washed” away but scientists will have to test for each individual protein/waste.
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