The importance of posture when sleeping is not to be taken lightly. Although we are already used to hearing that sleeping face down is the least recommended because our neck remains rotated for hours to breathe, so we modify the cervical curvature and we are more susceptible to suffering from neck pain, tendonitis, ligament pain, or others. Musculoskeletal problems, now, a new study concludes that it is also vital for our brain.
Thus, a team of researchers from Stony Brook University in New York (USA) has concluded that sleeping in a lateral position, compared to sleeping on your back or stomach, can help to more effectively eliminate waste from the brain each day during sleep, thus reducing the chances of developing neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.
“Interestingly, the lateral sleeping position is actually the most popular in humans and most animals, even the wild ones . It seems that we have adopted the lateral sleep position to cleanse our brain more efficiently of the metabolic waste that accumulates while we are awake ”, explains Helene Benveniste, leader of the study.
To reach this conclusion, the scientists used dynamic contrast magnetic resonance imaging to capture the glymphatic system of the brain of a group of rodents , a complex process that acts as a motor for cleaning debris and other harmful chemical solutions from the brain (such as tau or beta amyloid proteins). For this reason, after reviewing the most common postures at bedtime and comparing them with the effectiveness of the functioning of the glymphatic system, they discovered that the lateral position, regardless of the side, was the one that most favored this daily process during the stage. of night rest.
” The analysis consistently showed us that glymphatic transport was more efficient in the lateral position compared to the supine or prone positions,” concludes Benveniste.
The study has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience .
