深度睡眠如何清除大脑中的毒素

Deep sleep is important for all aspects of your health, so it makes sense that during that time, there's a lot of activity going on in your brain. Brain waves that occur during this period — when you're in your deepest resting state — seem to trigger a type of cleaning system. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that is released washes away toxic proteins, thereby protecting the brain from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, according to new research.

深度睡眠对你健康的各个方面都很重要，所以在这段时间里，你的大脑有很多活动是有道理的。当你处于深度休息状态时，脑电波会触发一种清洁系统。最新研究表明，脑脊液(CSF)能够洗去有毒蛋白质，从而保护大脑免受阿尔茨海默病等神经退行性疾病的侵袭。

图片来源：MARY JO DILONARDO

To examine how this power-washing worked, researchers at Boston University had 11 participants spend the night in the lab, sleeping inside an MRI machine. They started the tests at midnight, according to Wired, so that the subjects would be tired and would be more likely to fall asleep.

为了研究这种能量清洗是如何起作用的，波士顿大学的研究人员让11名参与者在实验室里睡在核磁共振成像仪里。据《连线》杂志报道，他们在午夜开始测试，这样受试者会很累，更容易入睡。

Electrodes monitored the electrical currents in their brains while the MRI measured the blood oxygen levels in their brains and where and how much cerebrospinal fluid was flowing.

电极监测他们大脑中的电流，而核磁共振成像测量他们大脑中的血氧水平以及脑脊液的流动位置和数量。

Electrical waves and fluid

电波与流体

Keep in mind that we cycle between rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep at night. During REM sleep your eyes move around quickly in different directions. This is usually when dreams happen. Non-REM sleep has a deeper component, playing a role in tissue repair and regrowth, as well as memory, brain disease and general upkeep of the brain.

记住，我们在夜间的快速眼动(REM)和非快速眼动(non-REM)睡眠之间循环。在快速眼动睡眠中，你的眼睛会快速地向不同的方向移动。这通常是梦发生的时候。非快速眼动睡眠有一个更深层次的组成部分，在组织修复和再生，以及记忆，大脑疾病和大脑的一般维护方面发挥作用。

In the study, researchers discovered that during non-REM sleep, large waves of fluid washed over the brain about every 20 seconds. They noticed that a wave of electrical activity occurred in the brain first and then a wash of fluid followed a few seconds later. The findings suggest that the electrical waves trigger each slow wave of fluid. The results were published in the journal Science.

在这项研究中，研究人员发现，在非快速眼动睡眠中，大约每20秒就会有一大波的液体冲刷大脑。他们注意到大脑中首先出现了一波电流活动，几秒钟后又出现了一波液体。研究结果表明，这些电波触发了每一种流体的慢波。研究结果发表在《科学》杂志上。

"It's already known that people with Alzheimer's disease have less of these electrophysiological slow waves, so they have smaller and fewer slow waves," study coauthor Laura Lewis, a neuroscientist and engineer at Boston University, tells NPR.

研究报告的合著者、波士顿大学的神经学家和工程师劳拉·刘易斯告诉美国国家公共广播电台(NPR):“我们已经知道，患有阿尔茨海默症的人较少有这种电生理慢波，所以他们的慢波更小、更少。”

Fewer slow waves reduce the number of cerebrospinal fluid washes, limiting the brain's ability to rid itself of toxins linked with Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative illnesses, researchers suggest.

研究人员表示，慢波的减少减少了脑脊液的清洗次数，限制了大脑清除与阿尔茨海默病和其他神经退行性疾病有关的毒素的能力。

"It would make sense that if there's large waves of fluid, of CSF, that that might in turn cause mixing and dispersion with other fluids in the brain and help with this waste removal process," Lewis says.

刘易斯说:“如果脑脊液中有大量的液体，那就有可能导致脑脊液与大脑中的其他液体混合和分散，从而有助于废物清除过程。”

The study could have clinical applications for Alzheimer's as researchers investigate other ways to approach treatments for the disease.

这项研究可能对阿尔茨海默氏症有临床应用，因为研究人员正在研究治疗这种疾病的其他方法。