For example: If you normally sleep 7 hours per day and one day you only get 5 hours of sleep, chances are that the next day when you fall sleep you will sleep for around 9 hours. Or if you only sleep for a normal 7 hours that day you will still need more than 7 hours the day after that to feel fully rested.
How do brains keep track of how much sleep they lost and need to make up for?
In: 20
Your lymphatic system is like your body’s sewer system, carrying away your cell’s wastes to be broken down in your liver and then excreted in urine and stool. The lymphatic system doesn’t extend into your skull for lack of space. So instead, when you sleep, blood flow to your brain is reduced, causing blood vessels to contract slightly and allowing cerebrospinal fluid to flow between the blood vessel walls and your brain. This is when your brain cells dump the day’s saved-up wastes, which is mostly adenosine (your cells “burn” adenosine triphosphate for energy, and adenosine is the “ash” leftover), plus lipids and proteins from cellular repair.
When you feel sleepy, this is your brain detecting the build up of these wastes, which eventually begin interfering with normal functioning of your brain cells. When you don’t get enough sleep, not all of this waste has been removed, so today’s waste begins piling up on top of the remainder of yesterday’s waste, and you feel drowsy or groggy when normally you’d feel awake and alert.
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