As many as 44% of Poles suffer from sleep disorders. The health consequences of not getting enough sleep can be tragic. Researchers’ studies indicate that one of the key ones is brain damage. How is this possible?
Scientists have proven that the brain that doesn’t get an adequate dose of sleep “eats itself”. A frightening fact was proven by researcher Michele Bellesi of the Universita Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona. There are two types of glial cells in the brain that are responsible for removing unnecessary elements. Astrocytes eliminate synapses, the connections between cells that enable the transmission of nerve signals. The second type of cells are glial cells, which scour brain structures to locate redundant cells. A study on mice that Michele Bellesi conducted showed that in rodents that are sleepy, the brain “clearing” cells are only 6% active. In contrast, animals were deprived of sleep was in much worse shape, and the activity of their glial cells and astrocytes reached 14%. The alarming findings are another important warning about the crucial role of adequate sleep for everyone’s emotional and physical health.
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