While You Sleep, Your Brain Takes Out the Trash: The Science of Neurological Self-Cleaning
A specialized fluid-drainage network in the brain becomes dramatically more active during sleep, flushing out the same proteins implicated in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. New research is reshaping how neurologists think about sleep not as passive rest, but as an essential biological maintenance process. Understanding this mechanism may be one of the most important steps Americans can take toward long-term cognitive health.