Best Sleep Position

The position that is best for your brain health, according to researchers who were published in the Journal of Neuroscience, is sleeping on your side. Nearly two in three Americans sleep on their side. This is considered the best when it comes to your brain’s nighttime processes for clearing out waste and harmful chemicals. University of Rochester researcher Maiken Nedergaard said that we have adapted the lateral sleep position to most efficiently clear our brain of the metabolic waste products that build up while we are awake. Brain waste includes things like beta amyloid and tau proteins, which are often associated with the plaques and tangles common in Alzheimer’s patients. Although further testing needs to be done in humans, the study supports other findings which reinforce the connection between sleep and Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases. Additional studies have shown that sleep is vital in keeping your brain healthy and disease-free. One study found that poor sleep doesn’t just affect your mind’s ability to save new memories, but it can create a channel allowing the harmful proteins to affect long-term memory storage. For more information go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/your-sleeping-position-could-reduce-your-risk-of-alzheimers-and-parkinsons_55c4ced0e4b0d9b743dbda5b