Glymphatic system
DEGlymphatisches System
The glymphatic system, described by Iliff, Nedergaard and colleagues in 2012, is the brain's waste-clearance pathway, in which cerebrospinal fluid flows along perivascular spaces, exchanges with interstitial fluid, and removes metabolic byproducts such as beta-amyloid and tau. Activity increases substantially during deep sleep, when the interstitial space expands by roughly 60 percent (Xie et al., 2013). Impaired glymphatic clearance is implicated in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions, making sleep a key intervention point for brain longevity.