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how does sleep affect brain health
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dementia is a deterioration of brain
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function that occurs
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as we age this kind of deterioration can
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be seen in
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thinking remembering reasoning
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and general behavioural abilities
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we now see in the research that sleep
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deprivation is tied into higher risks of
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developing dementia
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studies have found that older adults
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that report getting less than five hours
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of sleep
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a night have double the risk of dementia
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compared to adults that get seven to
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eight hours of sleep per night
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researchers have also found that
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disruption in deep sleep
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can lead to a rise in amyloid beta
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levels by as much as 30 percent
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this is important because amyloid beta
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buildup
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in the brain is a hallmark of
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alzheimer's disease
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it's a lesser known fact that one of the
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functions of sleep is to remove
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waste product buildup from the brain
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in 2012 scientists discovered what is
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now called the glymphatic system
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and this is the brain's unique process
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for removing waste
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and it occurs during deep sleep it seems
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that the slow steady brain waves and
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heart activity that occurs during deep
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sleep actually
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pumps cerebral spinal fluid through the
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brain
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which washes away waste so this in part
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may explain
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why disrupted or poor sleep especially
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disrupted deep sleep
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has been found to be associated with a
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build-up of toxic proteins and
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beta-amyloid or beta-amyloid plaques
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that are found in conditions such as
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alzheimer's disease