Good sleep is vital not only to your overall health but also to the health of your brain.

In fact, quality sleep has been found to reduce your risk of cognitive decline and dementia as you age.

However, sleep problems can creep up with age, stealing those hours that allow your brain to reset.

Because of this, many of us turn to sleep medications for help.

Unfortunately, new research is revealing that one of the most common of these sleep drugs could exert a negative influence on a little-known brain system that prevents the organ from clearing out toxic waste.

The brain’s plumbing system works while you sleep

The glymphatic system is a network of plumbing in your brain that drains waste out of your brain as you sleep. This system is vital because, unlike the rest of your body, your brain doesn’t have a lymph system to get rid of accumulated dead cells, bacteria and other toxins.

“Instead, the brain uses cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a brain fluid that is produced inside the brain, to flush the brain tissue and wash away unwanted molecules,” explains Maiken Nedergaard, MD, PhD, of the Universities of Rochester and Copenhagen.

This system also differs in that it only works to clean out the toxic waste buildup linked to neurodegenerative diseases through slow synchronized oscillations of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine.

Those oscillations that power the glymphatic system produce a combined action with CSF only during non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep, as norepinephrine is released in slow cycles every 50 seconds.

This “drives a slow fluctuation in the diameter of the arteries and the blood volume in the brain,” creating a pump to flush out the brain waste that accumulates throughout your day.

A hitch in the system

But what happens to that pump if you use sleep aids?

That’s exactly what Dr. Nedergaard’s team set out to study, keying in on one of the most common medications used — zolpidem, also known as Ambien.

What they discovered is something to give anyone who has used sleep aids a reason to worry…

The results showed that taking zolpidem seemed to halt norepinephrine oscillations, blocking the glymphatic system’s ability to remove brain waste during sleep.

According to the researchers, this means that despite the fact that sleep medications might help you actually get to sleep, the rest you get could lack the beneficial effects of natural, restorative sleep.

As Natalie Hauglund, PhD, explains, “Sleep is crucial as it gives the brain time to perform homeostatic housekeeping tasks such as waste removal. On the contrary, sleep aids block the neuromodulators that drive the waste removal system and prevent the brain [from] properly preparing for a new day.”

The researchers’ conclusion?

Sleep aids should only be used for short periods of time and then only as a last resort.

Natural support for glymphatic system health

So, how can you support your glymphatic system and your cognition to help reduce the damage caused by sleep aid use?

The number one way is through exercise.

In fact, exercise improves glycemic health in a number of ways.

Studies have shown that physical activity:

• Enhances glymphatic transport and accelerates glymphatic clearance
• Reduces amyloid β-protein accumulation (a hallmark in Alzheimer’s disease)
• Blocks neuroinflammation
• Protects against synaptic dysfunction and decline in cognition

The research results have been so clear that experts conclude it’s been “convincingly demonstrated that exercise has the potential to enhance the glymphatic activity in the brain.”

In addition to exercise, to best support your glymphatic system, try sleeping on your side.

It’s been shown that your glymphatic system works best when you sleep on your side.

Finally, be sure to get enough of these essential fatty acids that work as garbage men for your brain to help take out the trash.

Sources:

Common sleep medication may prevent brain from clearing ‘waste’ — MedicalNewsToday

The newly discovered glymphatic system: the missing link between physical exercise and brain health? — frontiers

Sleep on your side to diminish Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s — Easy Health Options