It has long been thought that sleep flushes out toxins and damaging molecules from the brain but a study now suggests that the opposite may be true and that being active may be more beneficial for ‘cleaning’ our grey matter.
The study’s co-lead author Professor Nick Franks from Imperial College London’s UK Dementia Research Institute said ‘The field has been so focussed on the idea that one of the key reasons why we sleep is to clear toxins from the brain and we were very surprised to observe the opposite in our results’.
Co-leader Professor Bill Wisden added ‘We have shown that brain clearance is highly efficient during the waking state and that being awake, active and exercising may more efficiently clean the brain of toxins’.
The findings were published in the Journal Nature Neuroscience.
