Getting a good night’s sleep is extremely important for a person’s overall health, and now another benefit of a good night’s sleep has emerged. A new study has found that sound sleep plays an important role in healing traumatic brain injuries.
The results of the study were published in the Journal of Neurotrauma. The study used a new technique incorporating magnetic resonance imaging developed at the University of Oregon Health and Science. Researchers used MRI to assess the expansion of perivascular spaces surrounding blood vessels in the brain. Expansion of these areas occurs with aging and is associated with the development of depression.
Among veterans in the study, those who slept badly had more evidence of these enlarged areas and more post-concussive symptoms. “This has a huge impact on the armed forces as well as civilians,” said lead author Juan Piantino, MD, MCR, professor of pediatric assistant (neurology) at OHSU School of Medicine and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
Piantino said, “This study suggests that sleep may play an important role in clearing waste from the brain after a traumatic brain injury – and if you don’t sleep very well, it may not be clean. you your brain so efficiently. ”Piantino, a physicist with the Pape OHSU Family Pediatric Research Institute, studies the effects of poor sleep on recovery after a traumatic brain injury.
The new study benefited from a method of MRI analysis developed by study co-authors Daniel Schwartz and Erin Boespflug, PhD, led by Lisa Silbert, MD, MCR, professor of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine. The device measures changes in the perivascular spaces of the brain, which are part of the brain’s waste cleansing system called the glymphatic system. “We were able to accurately measure this structure and count the number, location and diameter of the channels,” Piantino said.
Co-author Jeffrey Iliff, Ph.D., professor of psychology and behavioral sciences and neurology at the University of Washington and a researcher at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, has led scientific research into the glymphatic system and its role in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. During sleep, this brain network clears away metabolic proteins that would otherwise build up in the brain. The study used data collected from a group of 56 veterans enrolled by co-authors Elaine Peskind, MD, and Murray Raskind, MD, at the Center for Mental, Educational and Clinical Illness Research at VA Puget Sound between 2011 and 2019. “Imagine your brain generating all this junk and everything is working fine,” Piantino said.
Piantino noted, “Now you get a decision. The brain generates a lot more waste that it needs to remove, but the system becomes plugged.” Piantino said the new study suggested that the method developed by Silbert may be useful for older adults. “In the longer term, we can start thinking about using this method to predict who is at higher risk for mental health problems including depression,” he said. .
The latest study in a growing body of research highlights the importance of sleep in brain health. Sleep enhancement is an adaptable practice that can be improved through a variety of means, Piantino said, including improved sleep hygiene practices such as reducing screen time before bed. “This study puts sleep at the heart of recovery in traumatic brain injury,” Piantino concluded.
