30 years studying the human body — what your brain needs for peak performance Mom-MD Harvard EdM

All day long, your brain is metabolically active. That means it's using up energy and it creates byproducts, just like an engine or a motor might create the fumes of combusting gas. So if you're thinking, moving, feeling, planning, remembering, reacting to the world around you, your neurons are using energy and creating those toxic byproducts. In our brain, there's a system called the glymphatic pathway, supports the clearance of all that metabolic waste out of our brain. This glymphatic system appears to work most efficiently during sleep. So when I'm trying to convince myself to go to sleep, I I use Brain Talk. I tell myself that my brain is doing important work when I sleep. I need to clean up and repair my brain cells to memorize things. In fact, memory solidifies with sleep. During the day, the glymphatic system is just not as efficient. You might want to think of it like a dishwasher running on eco mode during the day and switching to heavy duty at night. Hi there and welcome back to the Mind Body Speaks podcast. I'm Dr. Juna Bobby MD. I built a little app on my website for you. It's called the Sleep Cave. It's a guided program where you click through each step to get you to your restful sleep, go to mindbodyspace.com/sleeptips or comment sleep and I'll get it to you. The Sleep Cave walks you through research-backed ways for your body to get ready for bed. If your minds are racing, we'll take care of that too.