Health, Wealth & Wisdom

Sleep Matters

February 25, 2024

“Let me tell you about what we found…” — One more reason to get a good night’s sleep, Jeff Iliff, TEDMED 2014

Early to bed and early to rise, may make you healthy, wealthy, and wise—no matter how many night-owls may disagree! We’re all told that sleep is important. But few of us know why.

Perhaps you’ve heard of “the lymph system?” It’s the circulatory system that removes waste from your body.

Did you know that the lymph system stops at your neck. The lymph system does not remove waste from your brain.

Although the brain only makes up about 2% of the body’s weight, it consumes about 20% of the body’s total energy expenditure. That energy consumption yields waste. That waste must be removed through some mechanism, or you will die.

Sleep is your body’s mechanism for removing waste from the brain.

While you sleep, your cerebral-spinal fluid flows the length of your spine and throughout your brain to clear waste. Lack of sleep means that your body may not have had sufficient time to clear all the waste from the brain activity of the prior day.

Sleep matters!