These days studies showing the importance of a good nights sleep keep pouring in . Yet most of us treat sleep like something that is trivial; something that we can be without at times. But can we?
An interesting study performed at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) indicates that while we sleep our brain “takes out the trash”. Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., D.M.Sc., co-director of the  (URMC) and lead author of the article  puts it this way; “…the restorative nature of sleep appears to be the result of the active clearance of the by-products of neural activity that accumulate during wakefulness.” The glymphatic system which is the brain’s method of waste removal seems to be highly active during sleep. Also the research showed that the brain’s cells reduce in size up to 60% during sleep which enables the glymphatic system  to remove waste more effectively. Similar to moving the furniture around while vacuuming the house I guess. This comes in handy as some diseases like Alzheimer’s seem to be caused by accumulation of waste products in the brain.

Its time to treat sleep with more respect and make arrangements for a good nights sleep every single night. Lets put away our electrical devices timely before going to sleep, clear our minds of all worries as well as ensuring that neither clocks nor snoring keep us awake!

Sleep tight – don’t let the bed bugs bite!