Meet Your Brain Janitor: The Glymphatic System

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Every night while you sleep, your brain janitor is hard at work cleaning up the damaging brain waste accumulated throughout the day as your brain performs its functions.  The human body is a fantastic machine that self-regulates and repairs, and rejuvenates the entire body during sleep. One of these rejuvenating systems is the brain’s janitorial service known as the glymphatic system.

Throughout the day, a protein called beta-amyloid begins to build up in the brain. Beta-amyloid is a waste product of the cellular respiration process, where energy is extracted from sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids. This protein is harmful and will cause damage to the brain.

When sleeping at night, we go through five stages. In each stage, different activities occur to repair, cleanse and rejuvenate the various parts of the brain and body. These stages include Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM), stages 1-2, deep sleep, stages 3-4, and Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage 5.  In 7-9 hours of sleep, we pass through these stages four times. Your brain janitor, the glymphatic system, goes to work during the deep sleep stage. This is, of course, if we do not get in its way, which we do sometimes when we do not get enough sleep; what we eat and drink can impact the brain janitor’s work as well.

How the Glymphatic System Works

In the deep sleep stage, the brain and body are postured to allow the glymphatic system to cleanse the brain without interruptions. The brain janitor shows up with his mop and mop bucket filled with a cleansing liquid. The cleaner in his mop bucket is cerebral spinal fluid. During the cleansing process, cerebral spinal fluid travels through what is known as the perivascular system. The blood vessels that support the central nervous system are surrounded by what are called perivascular spaces. The cerebral spinal fluid used to cleanse the brain travels through these spaces. During deep sleep, there is a decrease in stress hormones that allow the brain to relax, opening up spaces allowing the cerebral spinal fluid to seep through all brain’s tight spaces.

The cerebral spinal fluid passes through various ventricles in the brain, washing from the back of the head down through the front. All the waste is eventually processed and exits your body through your urine. Along the way, the cerebral spinal fluid refreshes the brain cells with much-needed nutrients.

What Happens When Your Brain Isn’t Properly Cleansed

When you fail to achieve 7-9 hours of quality sleep, you may immediately experience the effects of the beta-amyloid remaining in your brain when you wake up. Signs of this are cognitive fog, headaches, irritability and what can feel like a hangover. If you do not notice them the next day, you will see their damaging effects years down the road when you find yourself lacking in cognitive abilities or living with Alzheimer’s disease.

Research has demonstrated that beta-amyloid remains present in the brain when less than six hours of quality sleep is achieved. A decrease in the duration of deep sleep prevents all of the beta-amyloid from being completely removed. What’s left behind will damage the brain cells it comes into contact with. This buildup over time can significantly increase the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease, explains the National Institutes of Health.

A study published in 2018 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of American looked at what they call the Beta-Amyloid Burden (AAB); they found that through just one night of sleep deprivation, the BAB significantly increased in the hippocampus and thalamus. These findings were associated with memory issues and emotional regulation.

Helping Your Brain Janitor do its Job

The glymphatic system, which has its name due to its relationship with the lymphatic system, and its interaction with glial cells, hence glymphatic, is very effective at doing its job. Usually, when it does a poor job of cleansing the brain, we have made poor choices preventing it from effectively washing the brain.  We have to help out the brain janitor by achieving 7-9 hours of quality sleep and avoid consuming food and drinks that interrupt deep sleep. Here are some tips to ensure you support the glymphatic system in its cleansing process.

Avoid Caffeine Consumption 6-8 hours before bed. A 2015 study published in the journal of Brain Sciences found that consuming caffeine too close to bedtime prevented the required duration and quality of deep sleep. It also found that this stimulant prevented the brain from relaxing and allowing the cerebral spinal fluid to work through the tight areas of the brain.  

Avoid consuming alcohol 4-5 hours before bed. Really who drinks alcohol anyway 4-5 hours before bed? It takes about 4-5 hours for alcohol to leave your system altogether. Any remaining alcohol in your system will impact your quality of sleep. Sure, that nightcap can help you fall asleep with its sedative effects; however, you will not achieve restorative sleep while it’s still in your system. Alcohol influences a dysfunction of the lymphatic system creating inflammation which decreases the efficiency of the glymphatic system, explains Dr. Reiichiro Kondo in a study published in the Clinical and Molecular Hepatology Journal.  You may achieve a deep sleep under the sedative effects of alcohol, but your restorative sleep significantly decreases. It will be as if your brain janitor is mopping your brain with a dry mop as alcohol reduces the effectiveness of the glymphatic system.

Improve your sleep hygiene to ensure you achieve 7-9 hours of quality sleep. Click here to learn multiple tips in improving sleep hygiene.  Make a choice now to place priority toward your sleep. Some of you may be fatigued and feel the effects of poor sleep, but most may think that you are functioning fine with less than 7 hours of sleep. You may not feel the effects now, but I guarantee if you do not take sleep seriously now, you may find yourself as a senior citizen with Alzheimer’s disease or suffering from severe cognitive degeneration.  Your future of happiness and longevity into old age is dependent on the choices you make today.

About Post Author

Chris Pierce

chris.pierce23@gmail.com

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