While You Sleep, Your Brain Works
Why do we need sleep?
Is bedtime just a time for dreaming? Do our brains turnoff
for
the night? What if I told you that scientistsrecently discovered that our brains may be just as busyat night as they are during the day?
While we sleep, our brains are doing much more thangetting ready for
the next day. Researchers at
theUniversity of Rochester found that
the brain may be busy cleaning house -- cleaning out harmful waste materials.
As with many studies,
the researchers turned to mice for help. They studied
mice that
had colored dye injected into their brains. They observed the micebrains as they slept and when they were awake.
The researchers say theysaw that
the brains of sleeping mice were hard at work.
Working Double Duty
Dr. Maiken Nedergaard led the study.
The brain expert says our brainsperform two very different jobs.
It seems they have daytime jobs. Later they“moonlight”
at a nighttime job.
“Moonlighting”
is working a nighttime job in addition to
a day job. And this study says that is what our brains seem to
be doing – working an extra job at
night without additional pay for overtime.
“When we are awake,
the brain cells are working very hard at
processing all
the information about our surroundings. Whereas during sleep, they workvery, very hard at removing all the waste that builds up when we
are awake."
The researchers say that
the waste material includes poisons, or toxins,
responsible for brain disorders such as
Alzheimer’s disease.
They also found that during sleep,
the brain’s cells shrink, or become smaller.
This shrinking permitswaste to
be removed more effectively. Dr. Nedergaard says these toxins end up in
the liver.
There, they are broken down and then removed from
the body.
"So our study suggests that
we need to sleep because we have a
macroscopic cleaning system that removes many of
the toxic waste products from the brain."
The brain’s cleaning system could only be studied with new imagingtechnologies.
The test animal must be alive in order to see this brain processto
be seen as it happens.
Dr. Nedergaard says the next step is
to look for the process in human brains.
She said the results demonstrate just how important sleep is
to health and fighting disease.
The research may also one day lead to treatments toprevent or help fight
neurological disorders.
7 Tips for Better Sleeping
Do you have trouble sleeping?
Not being able to sleep is called insomnia. According to
the United States
National Sleep Foundation, here are some tipsfor
a good night’s sleep:
·
Go to bed
about the same time each night, even on weekends. This helps to “set”
your body’s “sleep clock.”
·
Exercise every day.
·
Have a calm,
relaxing bedtime routine – take a warm bath or drink a hot cup of tea.
·
Try
not to take long naps during the day. Periods of sleep during the daytime
can interfere with sleep at night.
·
Make
sure you have a pleasant environment where you sleep. For most people, a
cool, quiet and dark room is best for sleeping.
·
Avoid using
television, computers and other electronic screens before bedtime.
·
Also avoid
alcohol, cigarettes and heavy meals before bedtime.
This article was written for Learning English by Anna Matteo.
It is based on a report by
VOA health reporter Carol Pearson.
Words in the News
insomnia - n. a prolonged and usually abnormal inability to get enough sleep (“An
insomniac is a person who has trouble sleeping over a long period of time.”)
to moonlight; moonlighting – v. to work at
a second job in addition to your
regular job (“No wonder she is so tired at work. I just found out
that she has been moonlighting as a night club singer.”)
toxin n. a poisonous substance and especially one that
is produced by a living thing. "Toxic" is
the adjective of "toxin." (“The liver gets rid of
many toxins in the body.”)
inject v. to force a liquid medicine or drug into someone or something byusing a special needle (“They
injected the mice with dye.” “The injection was a colored dye solution.”)
shrink v. to become smaller in amount, size,
or value (“She washed her new wool sweater in hot water and it
shrunk two sizes! So, she gave it to her little sister.”)