New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

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Jmac
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New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

Post by Jmac »

I think we all know that sleep impacts our brain, memory, cognition. Wish I could do better with my deep sleep. I am going to a sleep specialist Friday, will be interesting to see what she comes up with if anything.

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New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain
The sleeping brain performs critical functions that affect cognition and memory.
We've long known that sleep is as important to our health as good nutrition and regular exercise. Not getting enough sleep is detrimental to daytime functioning – to our mood, energy, concentration and reaction time. Over the long term, it contributes to obesity and the risk of serious illness.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog ... -the-brain

---> Here's the abstract.
Coupled electrophysiological, hemodynamic, and cerebrospinal fluid oscillations in human sleep
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6465/628
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Re: New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

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I am going to a sleep specialist Friday
Be prepared to be sent away with a recommendation to see a cognitive behavioral therapist for sleep, once they rule out that you don't have AD or Parkinson's. This person will then ask you to start a consolidation sleep plan or something similar. The whole thing was a waste of time and effort and sleep, in my case. I hope your specialist is more insightful and holistic thinking than mine was.

I appreciate your post, though!
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Re: New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

Post by Family Tree Guy »

Jmac- good luck at the Dr. I would imagine that in addition to 'sleep hygiene' issues (dark, cool room, no screens before bedtime, etc.) they will rule out things that do in fact have workable solutions (sleep apnea, for example). My two cents, and there is some scientific literature supporting the concept, is to give binaural beats at the delta wave frequency (slow) a try for 20min before bedtime. The concept is that your brain gets synced to this frequency associated with deep sleep, and over time you actually have more deep sleep. (and there are no side effects except sleepiness, and the cost is essentially free because you can download all sorts of these things for free). I have been using this for years and finally got my wife to try it-- and within a few nights she was commenting on how she slept through the whole night for the first time in as long as she could remember...
best of luck,
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Re: New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

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Plumster wrote:The whole thing was a waste of time and effort and sleep, in my case. I hope your specialist is more insightful and holistic thinking than mine was.
I'm not impressed thus far. They really didn't care one little teeny tiny bit about anything I've been doing. They decided before I even had the actual sleep study that I was going to need a C-Pap machine, started explaining it all to me, etc.

Diet? Nutrition? Deep sleep? Interest in lifestyle, fact that I had a couple of bad sleep genes...not a blip, just an eye glaze if I started talking about what was going on. Didn't really tell them much as they were clearly not interested.

I'm doing the sleep study because I want to know if my Fitbit is correct. I have low hopes. How do you really know anything when the test is done in a lab, outside your normal habitat? With wires connected to your body? People watching you? In a room that is nothing like your home environment?

I use SnoreLab --- don't snore. She was kinda blank on that one. So, am walking into this with the idea that it's info gathering only. They must get a cut from C-Pap people. I asked about other alternatives. Per them, the mouth change thing doesn't work and they weren't aware of others.

Waste of my time aside from learning how all this works...
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Re: New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

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Family Tree Guy wrote:My two cents, and there is some scientific literature supporting the concept, is to give binaural beats at the delta wave frequency (slow) a try for 20min before bedtime. The concept is that your brain gets synced to this frequency associated with deep sleep, and over time you actually have more deep sleep. (and there are no side effects except sleepiness, and the cost is essentially free because you can download all sorts of these things for free). I have been using this for years and finally got my wife to try it-- and within a few nights she was commenting on how she slept through the whole night for the first time in as long as she could remember...
Thank you! I have come across a few things on that but not tried. Having a first-hand "testimony" is great. I'll add that to the mix. Tonight!
Last edited by Jmac on Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

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Diet? Nutrition? Deep sleep? Interest in lifestyle, fact that I had a couple of bad sleep genes...not a blip, just an eye glaze if I started talking about what was going on. Didn't really tell them much as they were clearly not interested.

I'm doing the sleep study because I want to know if my Fitbit is correct. I have low hopes. How do you really know anything when the test is done in a lab, outside your normal habitat? With wires connected to your body? People watching you? In a room that is nothing like your home environment?

I use SnoreLab --- don't snore. She was kinda blank on that one. So, am walking into this with the idea that it's info gathering only. They must get a cut from C-Pap people. I asked about other alternatives. Per them, the mouth change thing doesn't work and they weren't aware of others.

Waste of my time aside from learning how all this works...
Right?? Sleep medicine is a silo with no understanding of integrative or even advanced thinking (exceptions are out there, of course). And can I just add that this was at one of the most highly regarded research hospitals? I requested a sleep study and they gave me one to use at home. It showed nothing (of course I barely slept. Not a normal night by any means) and it turned out that it wasn't sophisticated enough to show nuance, as stated explicitly in my results. So, if you can, be sure to specify you want the most sensitive test.

I agree with you that they likely are working with a C-Pap company... It seems careless and irresponsible to just go ahead and have you invest in it without a sleep study.

By the way, there's an article out today on CBD oil that states it promotes sleep (article). I haven't tried CBD oil myself.
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Re: New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

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I managed to straighten out my sleep issues with the usual things, no blue light, computers, TV, etc. including regular sleep and awake times, cool bedroom, no alcohol, sugars, etc. I was tested for food allergies, I have many some of which were causing sinus issues, snoring. I changed ALL of that, increased daily exercise routine. I have completely turned the sleep around, I am beyond grateful for the success.

My wife is another story. After ages of no luck, including what I referred to as theCPAP B 52 face mask, she came across a TED Talk by Lee Bartel. He works with Sound Oasis, who manufactures a Vibroacoustic Therapy System, described in the TED talk. My wife called the company, spoke at great length with them, they were very helpful, mentioned a liberal trial period, a month I believe. At wits end, she decided to at least try it, she ordered the model VTS1000. This was a few months ago. My wife has completely turned her sleep around, dreams have returned, results, in her case have been remarkable.


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Re: New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

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Plumster wrote:Be prepared to be sent away with a recommendation to see a cognitive behavioral therapist for sleep, once they rule out that you don't have AD or Parkinson's. This person will then ask you to start a consolidation sleep plan or something similar. The whole thing was a waste of time and effort and sleep, in my case. I hope your specialist is more insightful and holistic thinking than mine was.
I fired the sleep "specialist". I know more about sleep than they do... The sleep study room was a converted medical office, could hear the woman in the next room hacking (bad cough) and snoring all night...no private bathroom so had to go down bright fluorescent lit hall (work up every time someone closed the door), no blackout curtains on the wall of windows...just blinds that allowed the bright parking lot lights to shine into the room and into my eyes all night, no temp control (locked in pulmonary doc's office) & the room was hot (I sleep at 65 degrees typically), the bed didn't raise (one lady left in the middle of the night after trying to sleep sitting up due to bad back)... I could go on...

I came so close to getting up and leaving but decided to tough it out. They said as long as they could get 2 hours of sleep from me they could determine the issue. Ha. Ha. I left at 4:15 a.m. (woke up, called the tech so could go to bathroom, she said I could go as they kicked us out at 5 anyway...she had a music degree...nice but all she did was take a cert class to monitor us...didn't measure placement of the leads, know anything about sleep...but did tell me it was good that the garbage truck didn't come through as I'd have really had a startling wake-up...and say everyone complained about the bright lights...)

They called to say I needed to come in to be set up for CPAP --- before I met with the doctor to discuss findings. I fired them (nicely), asked for results. They sent a write up that said I complained of extreme tiredness in my initial visit. I said the exact opposite, never tired, was concerned about lack of deep sleep / REM and waking up at night. SO frustrated.

I also know I woke up every time the lady in the next room coughed throughout the night --- has to have impacted the results. I know I didn't get to sleep until close to 1 a.m. as I was reading a book, trying to relax with a meditation app, getting up to wrap my jacket around my head to block the lights, getting extra pillows to prop myself up (I sleep with bed raised), and their write up says I was in light sleep starting around 10...

I had a sleep study through a hospital years ago. I know what a 'good' sleep study set-up should be. After doing all of my own sleep research I know they did everything possible to ensure I had a bad night's sleep :-).

I have been out trying to find a place where they work with you on sleep issues since I "fired" them. I need a sleep specialist not a CPAP sales person. I know I don't snore. I know how often I wake up. I've been working to improve this for way too long not to have used every non-doctor tool out there.

Nothing works. I actually had 8 hours of sleep last night for the first time in forever. During that time I had 19 minutes (not percent) Deep Sleep. I did hit 23% on the REM side of the equation. I have to figure out how to get more deep sleep... I have tried everything I found suggested on here plus across the Internet. (Here's a blog I did listing all the things I've found: https://ramblingjan.blogspot.com/2020/0 ... stion.html

I added binaural beats...no help. Happy to entertain suggestions??? I will do more than entertain them, I will implement them :-) Love to find someone in the Atlanta, Georgia area who will listen, work with me on improving my REM & Deep sleep...
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Re: New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

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Happy to entertain suggestions??? I will do more than entertain them, I will implement them :-)
JMac, sorry to hear of your frustrations with "sleep doctors." Some things I didn't see on your list that have helped me are:
1. Taking fish oil with dinner. The moment I started taking fish out at night, my sleep improved significantly. There's a study out there that shows that children slept an hour longer or so when taking fish oil with dinner.
2. Alpha Lipoic Acid with breakfast. This one is also not conslusive, but I stopped taking Lipoic Acid recently and noticed a change in my sleep for the worse. I then started again and am back to sleeping well. It appears that alpha lipoic acid helps set your circadian rhythm? I haven't dug deep into this at all, though.
3. You could potentially try the sleep consolidation plan that my sleep psychologist gave me. It didn't work for me, but I can find the sheet that he gave me and give you the details. Just let me know.
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Re: New Research Shows How Sleep Clears Toxins from the Brain

Post by circular »

Jmac that sounds horrible. Do you happen to have a university nearby with a research- connected sleep center? I’ve had two sleep studies and the university connected one, and sleep doctor, was by far the best. The other was affiliated with a reputable hospital, so not bad, but not what the research connected one was.

I noted on your blog post (a great resource for folks!), that meditation appears to be almost an afterthought, something to focus on if all else fails. Personally, I would put this at top with blue blocker devices and other standard recommendations. I think the ‘monkey mind‘ has the power to override a lot of interventions. I’ve found that any kind of relaxing movement like yoga, tai chi and qi gong are essential companions to still meditation, each providing important inputs to the overthinking and/or anxiety-prone minds and enhancing each other.

On the ‘mental health’ side I’ve also found invariably that when I have a stretch of poor sleep I have some kind of blocked emotion, usually grief, disrupting things. Once it’s out of my system, and I mean giving myself the time and space to completely fall apart, my sleep returns. Tears are filled with stress hormones and help cleanse the body of them.

Of course we’re all different, and MMMV, but for some of us there is a real risk to sleep patterns evoked by functional medicine’s extreme emphasis on myriad details that can overshadow the need to restore a profound and abiding experience of non-thinking awareness, a type of awareness that would saturate our days in a healthier society. (Blue zones?)

My own journey in these regards is a work in progress due to ongoing caregiving issues and problems with executive function (and it’s a journey regardless), but I’ve found the greater my focus in these areas the better my health and sleep and the fewer complementary interventions I need to sleep well and feel good.

One last thought, and I’m trying to be more consistent about this... The adage that 10 pm is a healthy bedtime hasn’t been optimal for me. Later is worse but earlier, closer to 9, has given me the best track record for hours of real sleep and deep sleep (Fitbit data).

FWIW
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