Sleep: A natural brain detox

Want to take care of your brain without a detox program? Log some more hours of shut eye.

There’s a new study published in Science Magazine which found that the cleanup system in the brain, the one that flushes out toxins and waste the cells produce on a daily basis, jumps into double time during sleep in mice.

Today, about 20% of Americans say that only get about 6 hours of sleep per night, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

That’s simply not enough for most people, and the number of people claiming sleep deprivation is increasing.

That means that a large part of the American population is at risk for some serious illness.

“Sleep puts the brain in another state where we clean out all the byproducts of activity during the daytime,” said study author and University of Rochester neurosurgeon Maiken Nedergaard. 

So staying up at night could potential cause those toxins to build up in the brain.

And that can have disastrous consequences — mental fog, migraines and even seizures.

In fact, rates that were deprived of sleep completely died within weeks.

When we sleep, our brains shrink and allow fluid to enter and flush out the toxins, noted Nedergaard.

If we’re not sleeping, our brains aren’t getting the maintenance they need to function well on a daily basis.

Other roles of sleep

The function of sleep has long been a mystery, but there are a few things that have been mostly confirmed.

In addition to helping detox the brain, sleep also plays a key role in memory formation.

Sleeping shifts short term memories from the day into long-term memories.

If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re at a higher risk for memory loss and diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Additional detox programs

If you’re not getting enough sleep, like many Americans, it’s important to detox your body.

One way to do that is through a detox diet.

Switching to an organic food diet can slowly rid the body of many toxins while populating the body with nutrients.

Check out our organic food detox diet guide to learn more about detoxification via food.

There are also several safe and effective ways to cleanse your body and eliminate toxins and waste.

For more info sleep and detoxification, contact our detox day spa today:

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