Different sleeping positions may have an impact on the brain, a new study suggests.
According to the new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, lateral sleeping, or sleeping on one's side, can help protect a person from Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers from Stony Brook University, led by Helene Benveniste, found that lateral sleeping can effectively clear off waste materials from the brain, which consequently helps reduce the risk of dementia and other neurological illness, as reported in Medical News Today.
For the study, researchers looked at the system known as glymphatic pathway, which is a system in the brain responsible for eliminating waste materials, which can contribute to the decline of brain and tissue function.
This system performs effectively when a person is asleep, as the medical news outlet mentioned.
Glymphatic pathway helps remove toxic chemicals found in the brain, including beta-amyloid and tau proteins, through the proper exchange of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and interstitial fluid (ISF).
The harmful substances, when accumulated in the brain, are known contributors to Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers also used a process called "dynamic contrast magnetic resonance imaging" to carry out the study and provide an image of how the two fluids carry out the exchange in rodents that have different sleeping positions.
The results consistently showed that the pathway is at its most efficient during side-lying position compared to the prone (lying on stomach) or supine (lying on back) positions.
Sleeping on one's side is a popular sleeping position not only in humans, but also in animals, especially those in the wild.
The recent findings from researchers provide more evidence that sleep is important for the proper function of the brain.
"Because of this finding, we propose that the body posture and sleep quality should be considered when standardizing future diagnostic imaging procedures to assess CSF-ISF transport in humans and therefore the assessment of the clearance of damaging brain proteins that may contribute to or cause brain diseases." Benveniste concluded of the study, as reported in Medical News Today.
