Eli5: When we sleep, spinal fluid washes waste from our brain. What exactly is “waste” in the brain?
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Major components are adenine nucleotides, secreted glyph and from Astrocytes, lots of the cleaved targets of gamma secretases, which beta amyloid peptides are one of them.
Even after one night of bad sleep, or not enough hours of sleep, researches find increased levels of amyloid on a PET scan. Sort of suggesting that that CSF waves during sleep didn’t wash out the secreted amyloid peptides from the night before.
Do they also have to do something with Sciatica and slip discs?
Where does the waste go? To the blood and gets cleaned by the liver?
My Spinal fluid is unable to wash “the fluid” from my brain I have a brain condition called Idiopathic Intercranial Hypertension.. this causes this cycle to malfunction and if left untreatead can cause permanent blindness and can also be fatal if medical attention isnt seeked. I have a VP shunt fitted into my head that manually takes the excess brain fluid build up and disposes it to my small (or large, I can’t be quite remember) intestine where it naturally breaks it down safely into my body. It doesn’t really limit my day to day living but I’m not allowed to the North or South poles due the the Earth’s magnetic fields..it will play havoc so bang goes my treks there.
Side note: Adenosine builds up while we sleep. It is responsible for the “sleepy” feeling we have when we wake up. It is in a dance with melatonin and light creating our circadian rythm. You can manipulate the production by exposing yourself to light, cold, coffee, and exercise.
In other words, you can move your adenosine cycle around by exposing yourself to one minute cold shower, then 10 minutes of sunlight, and twenty minutes of exercise. This is how you can get accustomed to waking up at 5AM if needed. Keep in mind you will need to go to sleep earlier. There is a similar set of things you can do in the evening to help adjust that side of circadian rhythm as well.
LPT: If you shake your head back and forth while you sleep it cleans your brain better. The spinal fluid sloshes around like a washing machine!
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