How does your brain “clean up the garbage” while you sleep?

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 11 (Xinhua) -- When you are in a sweet dream, your brain is not idle, but is carrying out some important logistical maintenance work, such as strengthening cognition and consolidating memory. A recent study published in the British journal Nature discovered an important mechanism for the brain to clear garbage during sleep.

The brain produces a lot of waste when it consumes energy and absorbs nutrients during the day, but people have not known how the brain removes this waste. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found in a mouse experiment that the neurons in their brains act as "cleaning pumps" and will release electrical signals in a coordinated manner to generate regular brain waves, thereby flushing and cleaning the entire brain and removing waste.

The study found that if a specific area in the mouse brain is "turned off", it will prevent the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in that area, indicating that neurons generating brain waves are an important part of the brain's cleaning process. It is these neuronal "cleaning pumps" that provide power for the flow of cerebrospinal fluid and the removal of garbage debris from the brain. The higher the brain waves and the greater the amplitude, the stronger the ability to cause the fluid to flow, similar to the strong rinse when people wash dishes.

The researchers believe that if they can master the ability to manage this neuronal activity in subsequent studies, they may be able to develop new treatments for some brain diseases, and may even delay or prevent neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. In addition, mastering this "cleaning mechanism" is also expected to help people sleep more efficiently and stay healthy even if they sleep less.