The position you adopt while sleeping can have repercussions for your health. In fact, it can not only affect your spine, especially the cervical area, but it can also help your brain get rid of the metabolic waste produced throughout the day. Sleeping position is a serious issue that can positively or negatively impact our quality of life.
Sleep is essential for clearing brain waste.
The existence of the “glymphatic system,” which replaces the lymphatic system in the brain, was recently discovered. Researchers at the University of Rochester discovered that when we sleep, our brain is responsible for getting rid of the byproducts of neuronal activity that accumulate during wakefulness. It eliminates waste products such as beta-amyloid, which is responsible for Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders.
In practice, our brain has a kind of plumbing system in the blood vessels that allows cerebrospinal fluid to eliminate waste, incorporating it into the circulatory system. These fluids end up in the liver, which removes harmful substances from the blood.
The curious thing is that the glymphatic system is almost ten times more active during sleep. In fact, while we sleep, the amount of energy the brain consumes doesn’t decrease drastically, as one might expect. Furthermore, these neuroscientists discovered that during sleep, brain cells shrink by 60%, which helps them eliminate waste more efficiently.
This contraction creates more space between cells, allowing cerebrospinal fluid to more easily eliminate waste through brain tissue. Conversely, when we’re awake, brain cells expand, restricting the flow of cerebrospinal fluid.
Sleeping on your side allows the brain to eliminate waste more easily.
Now, a new study conducted at Stony Brook University has discovered that not all sleeping positions are equally beneficial for eliminating waste products from the brain’s metabolism. The experiment analyzed three positions: side, back, and stomach. At the same time, cerebrospinal fluid filtration through the brain was monitored. The analyses revealed that the glymphatic system was much more efficient when adopted in a lateral position. In fact, this position is the most natural, even in animals.
Therefore, it’s best to sleep on your side, a habit that helps reduce the likelihood of developing neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s. Even so, it’s recommended that you don’t sleep all night on one side, but rather switch from right to left. In fact, it’s been found that those who tend to sleep on the same side are more likely to develop carpal tunnel syndrome in the lower hand, suffer pain in the shoulder that’s lying flat, have more infections in the ear that’s pressed against the pillow, and lose more vision in the eye that’s flat against the pillow.
References:
Lee, H. et. Al. (2015) The Effect of Body Posture on Brain Glymphatic Transport. The Journal of Neuroscience; 35(31): 11034-11044.
Mendelsohn A. R. & Larrick, J. W. (2013) Sleep Facilitates Clearance of Metabolites from the Brain: Glymphatic Function in Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases. Rejuvenation Research; 16(6): 518-523.
