For the first time, a new study has observed that cerebrospinal fluid washes in and out of the brain in waves during sleep, helping clear out waste.

Recently, Medical News Today reported on a study that found that specialized immune cells are more active in the brain during sleep, busy performing maintenance work.

Researchers know that sleep is important — not just in terms of allowing the brain to reactualize, but also for "making space" for "cleaning" processes to take place.

However, many of the mechanisms through which this clearing out of brain waste takes place during sleep remain unclear.

Now, researchers at Boston University in Massachusetts have found that during sleep, the fluid present in the brain and spinal chord — called the cerebrospinal fluid — washes in and out, like waves, helping the brain get rid of accumulated metabolic "trash."

"We've known for a while that there are these electrical waves of activity in the neurons. But before now, we didn't realize that there are actually waves in the cerebrospinal fluid, too," study co-author Laura Lewis explains.

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