Sleep, Longevity and Cycling

Sleep is not rest. The brain during sleep is not a quiet brain — it runs processes that cannot happen during wakefulness, including glymphatic clearance of amyloid and tau proteins, memory consolidation, immune function, and emotional processing. Sleep has never been easy in my family. My father spent most of his adult life lying in the dark, waiting. I carry both his late melatonin release and my mother's hypervigilant light sleep. This post is what I eventually learned about what sleep is actually doing while you're not awake.