When you sleep, your brain cleans up—literally. Cerebrospinal fluid, which surrounds brain cells, scoops up toxic proteins that build up when you’re awake—including beta-amyloid deposits that clump together, destroy nerve cells and are strongly linked to Alzheimer’s risk—and safely gets rid of them. Getting too little sleep (such as only five or six hours a night) or poor quality sleep (waking up repeatedly) has been linked with increased levels of beta-amyloid deposits in older adults.

Last year, we told you about an extraordinary discovery by a team at the University of Rochester Medical Center that unlocks how the brain does this marvelous nightly detox. They studied mice, whose brains (we’re sorry to report) are pretty similar to ours. During sleep, it turns out, brain cells temporarily shrink, which makes more room for cerebrospinal fluid to move between them and sweep the toxic stuff out. (See “How Sleep Sweeps Toxins From Your Brain”)

Now, those same researchers have teamed up with others from Stony Brook University in New York and learned that sleep position matters. So how should you sleep to help your brain stay clean and healthy?
- See more at: http://www.betterhealth.com.ng/2015/09/how-sleeping-on-your-side-may-protect.html#sthash.1FXr9yO0.dpuf