Exercise is better than sleep at clearing toxins from the brain

It has long been suspected that resting at the end of a long day flushes out toxins and removes harmful molecules from the brain, but a new study suggests that getting active could be a better method for 'cleaning' the organ.

Experts from Imperial College London's UK Dementia Research Institute used a fluorescent dye to study mice brains as they tracked how fast the dye moved from one area of the organ to another before being cleared.

It was discovered that the clearance and movement of fluid was reduced considerably during sleep and when under anaesthetic.

Professor Nick Franks, the co-author of the study, said: "The field has been so focused on the clearance idea as one of the key reasons why we sleep, and we were, of course, very surprised to observe the opposite in our results."

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