Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Sleep is essential for brain functionality and overall health but understanding how sleep delivers its beneficial effects remains largely unknown. Sleep researchers are exploring new and unbiased approaches that can take sleep to a systems level. In one such approach, referred to as 'systems genetics', inferences about biological phenomena can be made by linking together several levels of information from DNA to phenotype via gene expression, proteins and metabolism at the level of a population. Systems genetics offers a global and interconnected view of biological phenomena and is therefore considered critical towards predicting disease susceptibility.
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180809141231.htm
(Score: 5, Informative) by RandomFactor on Sunday August 12 2018, @03:13PM
Yeah, it looks like they twigged to this about five years ago.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/brain-may-flush-out-toxins-during-sleep [nih.gov]
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/10/18/236211811/brains-sweep-themselves-clean-of-toxins-during-sleep [npr.org]
I remember an article on this a year or so ago (here or /. probably) that covered it as well, talked about the brain compressing in sections much like a sponge for this purpose.
Essentially the brain is a big chemical factory and if you don't get sleep and do the rinse and repeat thing you start acting more and more impaired as a result (and yes, eventually die.)
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