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   Lack of Sleep May Lead to Brain Shrinkage   
   September 18, 2014 | 277,166 views   
      
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   By Dr. Mercola   
      
   Recent studies show poor sleeping habits cause both brain damage and brain   
   shrinkage, and may even accelerate onset of Alzheimer's disease.1   
      
   Previous research published in the journal Science2 revealed that your brain   
   removes toxic waste during sleep through what has been dubbed "the glymphatic   
   system."3, 4, 5   
      
   This system becomes active during sleep, thereby allowing your brain to clear   
   out toxins and harmful proteins.   
      
   Sleep is also necessary for maintaining metabolic homeostasis in your brain.6,   
   7, 8 Without sufficient sleep, your neurons will actually begin to   
   deteriorate--and catching up on sleep during weekends will not prevent this   
   damage.   
      
   Lack of sleep has also been linked to obesity in both animals and humans, as   
   well as hormone alterations in animals. In short, sleeping soundly appears to   
   be key for aging well, and maintaining healthy brain function into old age.   
      
   Poor Sleep Can Lead to Brain Shrinkage   
      
   According to recent research published in the journal Neurology,9, 10, 11 lack   
   of sleep may affect the size of your brain. A total of 147 adult volunteers   
   underwent MRI scans to assess the link between sleep and brain volume.   
      
   As it turns out, sleep problems like insomnia can have a distinct impact on   
   your brain over time, causing it to shrink--and shrink more rapidly, compared   
   to those who sleep well. This effect was particularly significant in those   
   over 60. According to the    
   authors:   
      
   "Poor sleep quality was associated with reduced volume within the right   
   superior frontal cortex in cross-sectional analyses, and an increased rate of   
   atrophy within widespread frontal, temporal, and parietal regions in   
   longitudinal analyses.   
      
   Results were largely driven by correlations within adults over the age of 60,   
   and could not be explained by variation in physical activity, BMI, or blood   
   pressure."   
      
   The Importance of Staying in Sync with Nature   
      
   Maintaining a natural rhythm of exposure to sunlight during the day and   
   darkness at night is one crucial foundational component of sleeping well.   
      
   This was addressed in a previous interview with Dan Pardi, a researcher who   
   works with the Behavioral Sciences Department at Stanford University and the   
   Departments of Neurology and Endocrinology at Leiden University in the   
   Netherlands.   
      
      
   Download Interview Transcript   
      
   Exposure to bright daylight serves as the major synchronizer of your master   
   clock--a group of cells in your brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN).   
   These nuclei synchronize to the light-dark cycle of your environment when   
   light enters your eye.   
      
   You also have other biological clocks throughout your body, and those clocks   
   subsequently synchronize to your master clock. One reason why so many people   
   get so little sleep, and/or such poor sleep, can be traced back to a master   
   clock disruption.   
      
   In short, most people spend their days indoors, shielded from bright daylight,   
   and then spend their evenings in too-bright artificial light. As a result,   
   their body clocks get out of sync with the natural rhythm of daylight and   
   nighttime darkness.   
      
   This, it turns out, may have more far-reaching ramifications than previously   
   thought, and humans are not the only ones affected by artificial lighting   
   brightening up the night.   
      
   For example, researchers investigating incidences of birds singing in the   
   middle of the night believe that bird behavior is being adversely affected by   
   artificial lighting from street lamps and city lights.   
      
   Artificial Light Disrupts Sex Hormones in Birds   
      
   Mounting evidence suggests that artificial lights are actually "altering the   
   basic physiology of urban birds, suppressing their estrogen and testosterone   
   and changing their singing, mating and feeding behaviors," Environmental   
   Health News12 reports.   
      
   One animal study13 found that chronic exposure to light at night prevented   
   reproductive organ development in male blackbirds. Their sex organs developed   
   naturally during the first year, but in the second year of nighttime light   
   exposure, the development    
   stopped altogether.   
      
   Birds aren't the only species suffering from light pollution. As noted in the   
   featured article:14   
      
   "In the wild, light pollution causes hatchling sea turtles to lose their way   
   from beach to the ocean, and disorients Monarch butterflies searching for   
   migration routes.   
      
   In field experiments, Atlantic salmon swim at odd times, and frogs stop mating   
   under skies glowing from stadium lights at football games. Millions of birds   
   die from collisions with brightly lit communication towers, and migratory   
   flocks are confused by    
   signals gone awry.   
      
   More recently, researchers have documented an earlier dawn chorus, which   
   influences mate selection, feeding and interplay among species. At a deeper,   
   molecular level, the changes in birds' hormones raise questions about their   
   reproductive fitness and the    
   potential for ecological and evolutionary consequences."   
      
   The researchers call for collaboration between scientists and policy makers to   
   limit the impact of light pollution on animals and ecosystems. It's easy to   
   make the case that humans need to limit light pollution as well, in order to   
   thrive...   
      
   Future Obesity and Diabetes Treatments May Address Body Clock   
      
   If you're overweight and/or exhausted much of the time, chances are high that   
   poor sleep patterns--perhaps resulting from too many light-emitting   
   gadgets--are at play. The exposure to excessive amounts of light at night,   
   courtesy of electric light bulbs    
   and electronic gadgets of all kinds, makes it exceedingly difficult for your   
   body and brain to wind down for sleep. And this lack of sleep can lead to   
   metabolic dysfunction. Poor sleep has actually been implicated in obesity in a   
   number of previous    
   studies.   
      
   Most recently, scientists at the University of Manchester15 concluded that   
   your body clock plays an important role in chronic inflammation and the   
   accumulation of body fat. According to the University, the team's findings   
   "are helping develop new ways of    
   treating obesity and the fatal diseases linked to being overweight." According   
   to lead researcher Professor David Ray:   
      
      
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