Getting a good night’s sleep is important not only to rest your body and mind, but also to eliminate waste from your brain. However, sleeping pills such as Zolpidem can disrupt this cleansing process. This is what a study published on Wednesday (8) in the scientific journal Cell Press suggests.
According to the workdeep sleep can wash away waste accumulated in the brain during waking hours (a state of consciousness in which we are awake and alert). This process is essential for brain health, but findings suggest that sleeping pills can disrupt it, potentially affecting cognitive function in the long term.
The system responsible for this cleansing of the brain is the glymphatic system, which circulates fluid in the brain region and spinal cord to clear waste. This process helps remove toxic proteins that form plaques linked to neurological disorders. However, what drives this system is still unknown at the moment.
Danish researchers have discovered that a molecule called norepinephrine plays a key role in clearing the brain in mice. During deep sleep, the brain stem releases small waves of norepinephrine about once every 50 seconds.
Norepinephrine causes blood vessels to constrict, generating slow pulsations that create a rhythmic flow in the surrounding fluid to carry waste away.
In the recent study, researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark investigated what happens in the brain while mice sleep. They focused on the relationship between norepinephrine and blood flow during deep sleep.
They found that waves of norepinephrine correlate with variations in brain blood volume, suggesting that the substance triggers a rhythmic pulsation in blood vessels.
From there, the team compared changes in blood volume to the flow of brain fluid. The researchers found that brain fluid flow fluctuates in correspondence with changes in blood volume, suggesting that the vessels act as “pumps” to drive this fluid to eliminate waste.
“You can see norepinephrine as the conductor of an orchestra,” says study lead author Natalie Hauglund and researcher at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oxford, UK, in press release. “There is a harmony in the constriction and dilation of the arteries, which then drives cerebrospinal fluid through the brain to remove waste.”
To understand the action of sleeping pills on this system, the researchers gave mice Zolpidem, a common medication to treat insomnia. They found that norepinephrine waves during deep sleep were 50% smaller in mice treated with the drug than in mice that slept naturally.
Although mice treated with Zolpidem fell asleep faster, fluid transport to the brain dropped by more than 30%. The findings suggest that the sleep aid may stop norepinephrine-induced waste elimination during sleep.
“More and more people are using sleep medications, and it’s really important to know if that’s healthy sleep,” says Hauglund. “If people are not getting the full benefits of sleep, they should be aware of this so they can make informed decisions.”
The researchers believe that the findings can be applied to humans, as they also have a glymphatic system. However, more studies are needed to confirm these hypotheses. The study’s findings could offer insights into how poor sleep can contribute to neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.
“Now that we know that norepinephrine is promoting brain cleansing, we can figure out how to give people long, restorative sleep,” says Maiken Nedergaard, senior author of the study.
This content was originally published in Sleeping medication can make it difficult to clean waste from the brain, says study on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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