• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Subscribe to the Journal
  • Contact Us
Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy

Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy

Official Publication of the American Sleep and Breathing Academy

More Evidence for Sleep as Repair – Switching from Brain Building to Brain Maintenance

October 1, 2020 by admin

In yet another piece of research into the burgeoning world of sleep, Science News is reporting results of a new study out of the University of California, Los Angeles. Researchers bolster the theme of “repair” that begins shortly after early childhood.   

Specifically, before the age of 2 or 3 years, the human brain grows rapidly while building and strengthening synapses. After 2 or 3 years, however, sleep’s primary purpose switches from brain building to brain maintenance and repair, a role that continues through a lifetime.

“All animals naturally experience a certain amount of neurological damage during waking hours, and the resulting debris, including damaged genes and proteins within neurons, can build up and cause brain disease,” write Science News staff. “Sleep helps repair this damage and clear the debris—essentially decluttering the brain and taking out the trash that can lead to serious illness.”

“Nearly all of this brain repair occurs during sleep,” said study senior author Professor Van Savage, a researcher in the Departments of Computational Medicine and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe Institute in the article. “I was shocked how huge a change this is over a short period of time, and that this switch occurs when we’re so young. It’s a transition that is analogous to when water freezes to ice.” Professor Savage and colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Minnesota, Santa Fe Institute, Imperial College London, and the University of California, Los Angeles conducted the comprehensive statistical analysis, using data from more than 60 sleep studies involving humans and other mammals.

Source: Junyu Cao et al. 2020. Unraveling why we sleep: Quantitative analysis reveals abrupt transition from neural reorganization to repair in early development. Science Advances 6 (38): eaba0398; doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba0398

Filed Under: Blog, News

Primary Sidebar

More to See

Snoring, American Sleep and Breathing Academy and the NY Times

August 23, 2022 By admin

Jazz Pharma Presents 17 New Posters for SLEEP 2022

June 6, 2022 By admin

Tags

apnea CPAP Health Home Sleep Home Sleep Testing insomnia narcolepsy obstructive sleep apnea Sleep sleep apnea sleep apnea symptoms sleep apnea syndrome sleep apnea treatment sleep appliances sleep buisness Sleep Business sleep center Sleep Centers sleep community sleep diagnosis sleep diagnostic sleep diagnostics sleep disease sleep disorder sleep disorder center sleep disordered breathing sleep disorders sleep heart health sleep industry sleeping Sleep Lab sleep labs sleep management sleep medicine sleep monitor sleep physicians sleep problems sleep studies sleep study sleep technologist sleep test sleep testing Technology therapy Treatment

Footer

About SleepDT

SleepDT Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy is a clinical Journal for allied Sleep Professionals, Neurologists, Psychiatrists, Pulmonologists, Primary Care Physicians, and other medical specialists. We also advocate on behalf of patient care in the field of Sleep Medicine

Recent

  • SUPPORT AND PROMOTE DENTAL SLEEP MEDICINE IN 2023!
  • Snoring, American Sleep and Breathing Academy and the NY Times
  • Jazz Pharma Presents 17 New Posters for SLEEP 2022
  • AJMC Hypes SLEEP 2022
  • Avadel Pharmaceuticals’ Stock Falls

NAVIGATION

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Subscribe to the Journal
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2023 · Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy