You've slept a full eight hours and your face still hasn't caught up to you. Puffy along the jaw. Heavy under the eyes. A little swollen, a little dull - like the morning is happening to your face before it's happening to you.
It's easy to blame the pillow, the wine, the salt, the years. But there's something quieter going on, and it's actually rather beautiful: while you were asleep, your brain was cleaning house. It has its own drainage system - the lesser-known cousin of the lymphatic system - and the state you wake up in is, in part, a record of how well it ran overnight.
It's called the glymphatic system. Once you understand it, your morning face starts to make a lot more sense.
So yes - the brain has its very own lymphatic system! In fact, glymphatic health is crucial for brain longevity and the prevention of diseases such as dementia. If you’re looking to boost your brain health and longevity, your glymphatic system is a great place to start.
While the study of the glymphatic system is a relatively new area of research, here’s everything we know:
What is the glymphatic system?
The glymphatic system is a specialised network of vessels responsible for draining the brain and central nervous system of fluid. Your brain relies on cerebrospinal fluid to carry metabolic waste, proteins, brain chemicals and by-products away and to move fuel like sugars and fats around for good brain performance.
Put simply: it's your brain's waste-removal system. The brain essentially has its own lymphatic network. And keeping it flowing matters enormously for long-term brain health, which is why, if you care about ageing well from the neck up, this is a wonderful place to start.
It works while you sleep
Unfortunately for the insomniacs amongst us, the glymphatic system does its best work at night when we are asleep, and functions less during wakefulness.
Why? Brain activity is lower during sleep and so the glymphatic system takes this opportunity to remove potentially neurotoxic proteins like ß-amyloid (1). This type of protein can accumulate to form the kind of plaque seen in brains suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (1).
Naturally, you might be wondering which sleeping position optimises glymphatic drainage! More fluid drains when lying on the right side compared to your back or stomach, however maintaining that position all night is rare with most people rolling over ten times per night (2).
So if you’re interested in boosting your brain health and longevity … a good night’s sleep is the way to start. It may be worth looking into that tossing-and-turning so you can get the best out of your nights.
Depression is associated with reduced glymphatic flow
As the brain’s waste disposal system, a decline in glymphatic flow can result in the build-up of metabolic waste in the brain.
This can produce inflammation in the brain which further sabotages glymphatic drainage, but can also manifest as depression (3). In fact, depression is a risk factor for the onset of dementia in later life, which makes sense given that disturbed sleep is a commonly reported symptom within depression.
Strange how it all connects, isn’t it?!
Sluggish glymphatic drainage is a major risk factor for Parkinson’s disease and stroke
Yep, the build-up of amyloid protein in the brain is also associated with Parkinson’s disease, stroke as well as age related memory and cognitive decline (1).
In short? Forget the sudoku puzzles, prioritising your sleep is more important for preserving healthy brain function into your later years!
Do lymphatic issues affect glymphatic function?
All roads lead to the lymph! Although the glymphatic system is structurally very different to the lymphatic system, the cerebrospinal fluid that drains the brain of its metabolic “junk” does eventually flush through the meninges at the base of the skull and into the lymph system (4).
We know that optimising glymphatic function may help to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.
So how can we support this incredible system!?
How to support the glymphatic system:
Improve your sleep quality
Deep REM state sleep appears to be the stage of sleep where the glymphatic system is most active (3), due to lower levels of norepinephrine in the brain at this time.
Norepinephrine is a brain hormone that is responsible for alertness, affecting wakefulness, mood and concentration. Given that the glymphatic system is suppressed when we are awake, getting as much high quality sleep as possible is the best way to optimise the glymph and boost brain health and longevity!
Manage stress and anxiety
The production of norepinephrine is increased when the fight-flight stress response is activated, leading to that sensation of hyper arousal and jumpiness that comes with feeling anxious.
Chronic stress that results in elevated levels of brain hormones like norepinephrine suppress glymphatic function at night, so staying on top of stress through exercise and limiting excessive alcohol consumption is an easy way to improve your sleep quality and glymphatic function (2)!
Sort out your circadian rhythm
Glymphatic drainage is regulated in part by the circadian rhythm, commonly known as the sleep-wake cycle.
Day naps are not as effective when it comes to getting the glymphatic fluid draining, so keeping regular hours of sleep will help your brain to tap into that glymphatic goodness during the night.
If you’re a night owl, one way to bring your sleep-wake cycle back to balance is to get outside for some natural sunlight at dawn and dusk every day. This is one sure fire way to normalise the release of cortisol (stress hormone) and melatonin (sleep hormone) and regulate your circadian rhythm.
Going camping is one way to do it, or kill two birds with one stone and get your daily exercise in, first thing in the morning!
Get more omega-3 fats in your diet
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in oily fish, walnuts, flax seeds and flaxseed oil have been shown to improve glymphatic function by reducing inflammation in the glymphatic vessels of the brain (6). These healthy fats may also reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases by enhancing the removal of amyloid protein through glymphatic drainage (6).
So definitely look into consuming more omega-3 fats for a happy brain!
Support your face lymph, morning and night.
The same way the gloves support your body's lymph, your face benefits from a little daily attention - gentle movement to keep things flowing, and something that works with your skin rather than just sitting on it. This is the thinking behind : probiotic-rich, drinks straight in, and supports the gut-skin-lymph connection your glow actually depends on. It's the step women tend to start almost as an experiment - and then can't imagine their morning without.
Where your morning glow actually comes from?
This is the part most skincare conversations miss entirely.
If your brain drains down and out through the lymph at your chest then the last stop on that journey is your face and neck. So the face you meet in the mirror each morning isn't random, it's drainage. When that overnight flush runs well and your facial lymph is moving, you wake clearer, brighter, less puffy. When it's sluggish, too little sleep, too much stress, a stagnant lymphatic system, your face is the first place it shows. The puffiness. The heaviness. The dullness no highlighter quite fixes.
This is why we say it around here: move + flow = glow. The radiance women spend a fortune chasing in serums is, underneath it all, a drainage story, not a surface one. You can't paint on what circulation gives you for free.
Which is exactly why the face deserves the same support you'd give the rest of your lymphatic system.
Want to get started in a great feeling, self-massage kind of way?
I guarantee you already have all you need!
Simply grab a toothbrush (yes, a toothbrush), and use it to stimulate glymphatic flow.
As a bonus, you can even carry a toothbrush with you and do this anywhere to boost that brain health and longevity throughout the day! It’s a discreet exercise, mighty effective and takes less than a minute.
Want to know more? Join the Facebook group! It’s free, loaded with information on lymphatics, health, food, nutrition and more! If you are in our Boob Camp community, view Chelsey's talk with sleep expert Shea Morrison all to do with glympahtic system here!
And if you’re interested in going all-in on lymphatic and glymphatic health? Get started here today.
Reference List:
- Jessen et al. 2015. “The Glymphatics System – A Beginner’s Guide” Neurochemical Research, vol. 40(12)
- Reddy & van der Werf. 2020. “The Sleeping Brain: Harnessing the Power of the Glymphatic System through Lifestyle Choices” Brain Science, vol.10(11)
- Yan et al. 2021. “Glymphatic Dysfunction: A Bridge Between Sleep Disturbance and Mood Disorders” Frontiers in Psychology, vol.12:658340
- Louveau et al. 2016. “Lymphatics in Neurological Disorders: A neuro-lympho-vascular Component of Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s Disease” Neuron, vol.91(5);957-973
- Szot P. 2016. “Elevated Cerebrospinal Fluid Norepinephrine in the Elderly can Link Depression and A Reduced Glymphatic System as Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease” Journal of Aging Science, vol.4:2
- Zhang et al. 2020. “Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Alleviate Traumatic Brain Injury by Regulating the Glymphatic Pathway in Mice” Frontiers in Neurology, vol.11:707.
