Flushed: How Your Brain Pressure-Washes Itself Every Night

Your brain has its own waste management system that only runs while you sleep. We explore the glymphatic system—the discovery that literally pressure-washes your brain during deep sleep, flushing out the toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer's. Plus: why sleep deprivation causes hallucinations and what happens to your neurons when you're finally getting those Z's. 00:00 - Intro: The cost of staying up until 2am 03:45 - Megan Nettergaard's discovery and the glymphatic system 07:30 - How your brain cells shrink to make room for the cleaning crew 11:15 - Cerebrospinal fluid, neural waste, and amyloid-beta 14:00 - The Alzheimer's connection and why sleep deprivation matters This podcast episode was fully generated by AI — research, script, voices, and production. Built with Claude, Piper TTS, and automated pipeline tooling.