深度睡眠如何清除大腦中的毒素

深度睡眠如何清除大腦中的毒素

Deep sleep is important for all aspects of your health, so it makes sense that during that time, there's a lot of activity going on in your brain. Brain waves that occur during this period — when you're in your deepest resting state — seem to trigger a type of cleaning system. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that is released washes away toxic proteins, thereby protecting the brain from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, according to new research.

深度睡眠對你健康的各個方面都很重要，所以在這段時間里，你的大腦有很多活動是有道理的。當(dāng)你處于深度休息狀態(tài)時，腦電波會觸發(fā)一種清潔系統(tǒng)。最新研究表明，腦脊液(CSF)能夠洗去有毒蛋白質(zhì)，從而保護(hù)大腦免受阿爾茨海默病等神經(jīng)退行性疾病的侵襲。

圖片來源：MARY JO DILONARDO

To examine how this power-washing worked, researchers at Boston University had 11 participants spend the night in the lab, sleeping inside an MRI machine. They started the tests at midnight, according to Wired, so that the subjects would be tired and would be more likely to fall asleep.

為了研究這種能量清洗是如何起作用的，波士頓大學(xué)的研究人員讓11名參與者在實驗室里睡在核磁共振成像儀里。據(jù)《連線》雜志報道，他們在午夜開始測試，這樣受試者會很累，更容易入睡。

Electrodes monitored the electrical currents in their brains while the MRI measured the blood oxygen levels in their brains and where and how much cerebrospinal fluid was flowing.

電極監(jiān)測他們大腦中的電流，而核磁共振成像測量他們大腦中的血氧水平以及腦脊液的流動位置和數(shù)量。

Electrical waves and fluid

電波與流體

Keep in mind that we cycle between rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep at night. During REM sleep your eyes move around quickly in different directions. This is usually when dreams happen. Non-REM sleep has a deeper component, playing a role in tissue repair and regrowth, as well as memory, brain disease and general upkeep of the brain.

記住，我們在夜間的快速眼動(REM)和非快速眼動(non-REM)睡眠之間循環(huán)。在快速眼動睡眠中，你的眼睛會快速地向不同的方向移動。這通常是夢發(fā)生的時候。非快速眼動睡眠有一個更深層次的組成部分，在組織修復(fù)和再生，以及記憶，大腦疾病和大腦的一般維護(hù)方面發(fā)揮作用。

In the study, researchers discovered that during non-REM sleep, large waves of fluid washed over the brain about every 20 seconds. They noticed that a wave of electrical activity occurred in the brain first and then a wash of fluid followed a few seconds later. The findings suggest that the electrical waves trigger each slow wave of fluid. The results were published in the journal Science.

在這項研究中，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，在非快速眼動睡眠中，大約每20秒就會有一大波的液體沖刷大腦。他們注意到大腦中首先出現(xiàn)了一波電流活動，幾秒鐘后又出現(xiàn)了一波液體。研究結(jié)果表明，這些電波觸發(fā)了每一種流體的慢波。研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《科學(xué)》雜志上。

"It's already known that people with Alzheimer's disease have less of these electrophysiological slow waves, so they have smaller and fewer slow waves," study coauthor Laura Lewis, a neuroscientist and engineer at Boston University, tells NPR.

研究報告的合著者、波士頓大學(xué)的神經(jīng)學(xué)家和工程師勞拉·劉易斯告訴美國國家公共廣播電臺(NPR):“我們已經(jīng)知道，患有阿爾茨海默癥的人較少有這種電生理慢波，所以他們的慢波更小、更少。”

Fewer slow waves reduce the number of cerebrospinal fluid washes, limiting the brain's ability to rid itself of toxins linked with Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative illnesses, researchers suggest.

研究人員表示，慢波的減少減少了腦脊液的清洗次數(shù)，限制了大腦清除與阿爾茨海默病和其他神經(jīng)退行性疾病有關(guān)的毒素的能力。

"It would make sense that if there's large waves of fluid, of CSF, that that might in turn cause mixing and dispersion with other fluids in the brain and help with this waste removal process," Lewis says.

劉易斯說:“如果腦脊液中有大量的液體，那就有可能導(dǎo)致腦脊液與大腦中的其他液體混合和分散，從而有助于廢物清除過程。”

The study could have clinical applications for Alzheimer's as researchers investigate other ways to approach treatments for the disease.

這項研究可能對阿爾茨海默氏癥有臨床應(yīng)用，因為研究人員正在研究治療這種疾病的其他方法。