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A new study finds by sleeping on your side best clears metabolic waste products that built up while we are awake.
Sleeping in lateral position may aid in reducing the chance of developing Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases. Lateral sleep position has always been the most popular sleeping position among humans and animals. Further support was added to the concept that sleep subserves a distinct biological function of sleep and that is to ‘clean up’ the mess that accumulates while we are awake. Many types of dementia are linked to sleep disturbances, including difficulty in falling asleep.
There is an increasing information on how sleep disturbances may accelerate memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease.
Study has been conducted on mice to test out the ‘clean-up’ mechanism in three different sleeping positions – side, face-down, and face-up. Filtering of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through the brain as it exchanged with interstitial fluid was observed. The glymphatic pathway, clears waste from the brain most efficiently at night.
The results showed consistent glymphatic transport being most efficient in the lateral position when compared to face-up or face-down positions.
The next step will be to test the finding in humans.
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Source material from PSYBLOG