How chronic sleep deprivation destroys your brain

We have long known that chronic sleep deprivation is bad for you, but now researchers know why. And the implications are surprising.

It turns out that when you are asleep, your brain basically uses this time to "take out the trash." There are small channels in your brain which it uses to flush out metabolic waste products, and these channels are only useful when you are asleep. When you are awake, the channels are only 5% as wide - they expand when you sleep, and contract when you are awake.

If you don't get enough sleep, your brain doesn't have enough time to flush out all the waste products. This build-up can cause long-term neurological problems, including dementia and possibly even Alzheimer's.

Image courtesy Flickr/girlonaglide