Dr. Matt Walker

And it seems to be that it's deep non-REM sleep that is the principal time when we get the chance to clear away adenosine.

Now, adenosine clearance is happening all of the time.

It's just that the rate of accumulation when we're awake exceeds the speed with which we can naturally clear.

But when our brain goes into deep non-REM sleep and becomes less metabolically active, it's

It's not as though there's necessarily a more active or a very proactive state of deep sleep doing that cleansing.

It's not.

It's the same process of adenosine clearance.

It's just that there is no longer the accumulation that's happening.

So it gets the chance to catch up on the day's adenosine accumulation and then reduce down that adenosine debt and then get you to net-net neutral by the morning.

In fact, the amount of deep sleep, the quality of that deep sleep that you're getting, specifically the electrical quality of your deep sleep, is a very good predictor of how well you dissipate that sleepiness.

Again, it's not as though there's something special about non-REM sleep that is proactively dissipated.

doing the cleansing faster than happens when we're awake.

It's just that the rate of accumulation when we're awake is greater than the exceeding and exceeds the capacity of the clearance.

So it builds up.

When we go into non-REM, less metabolically active, now the clearance exceeds the buildup and you're able to cleanse that debt.

It is, although there is some argument that it is, is it sleep dependent or is it simply sleep coinciding?

Okay.

Meaning that is it, it's that the time of day, so is it a circadian process where it's just nighttime nurse means that you release growth hormone or is it nighttime

plus sleep that is needed.

And it seems to be a mixture of both, but it seems to be more sleep dependent than it is nighttime dependent and sleep independent.