Cerebrospinal fluid literally washes your brain while you sleep to clear out toxic proteins that accumulate during your waking hours of agonizing over embarrassing things you did five years ago.

A closer look

Cerebrospinal fluid literally washes your brain while you sleep to clear out toxic proteins that accumulate during your waking hours of agonizing over embarrassing things you did five years ago. This neurological power-washing process relies on your brain cells actually shrinking by about sixty percent to allow the fluid to flow freely through the neural pathways, effectively scrubbing away the amyloid beta plaque associated with Alzheimer's disease. Essentially, your brain has to physically deflate every single night just so a biological Roomba can mop up the biochemical garbage left behind by your stressful corporate job, proving that staying up until three in the morning to binge-watch mediocre television is functionally equivalent to living in a house where you never take out the trash and just let the raccoons win