{"id":75478,"date":"2022-12-06T21:58:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/12\/06\/study-recruits-troops-to-see-how-sleep-deprivation-affects-the-brain\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:20:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:20:39","slug":"study-recruits-troops-to-see-how-sleep-deprivation-affects-the-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2022\/12\/06\/study-recruits-troops-to-see-how-sleep-deprivation-affects-the-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Study recruits troops to see how sleep deprivation affects the brain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A high-tech MRI may be able to detect precisely how brain function<\/a> changes with lack of sleep. It\u2019s part of a troop study getting underway at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers will use General Electric\u2019s MRI system<\/a> Microstructure Anatomy Gradient for Neuroimaging with Ultrafast Scanning \u2015 or MAGNUS \u2015 to watch the brains of both healthy sleepers and the chronically sleep-deprived to see if the process the brain undergoes to clear out \u201cwaste\u201d every night is affected by insomnia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, you now have, essentially, a hypothesis that if deep sleep is disrupted, and you\u2019re looking at short naps or going through incomplete stages of sleep \u2015 the question that some researchers asked was, does that pathway become less efficient?\u201d Luca Marinelli, GE\u2019s product leader, told Military Times on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is a follow-up from a previous USUHS-GE study using MAGNUS, a head-only system, to look at traumatic brain injury<\/a> markers in troops that can\u2019t be seen on a regular MRI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was kind of like the pilot, you know, to prove out that the device works,\u201d Marinelli said. \u201cIt\u2019s powerful. It gives us insights that we were not able to get with conventional whole-body MRI systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step is to interrogate how the sleep disturbances, including those known to accompany TBI, affect the brain\u2019s ability to wash away waste products at the end of the day, the way the lymphatic system does for the body\u2019s other tissues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The glymphatic pathway in the brain, according to a November release from GE, is basically the body\u2019s way of \u201cclearing your head\u201d during the night, and studies have shown it\u2019s particularly active during deep sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some studies have shown<\/a> that active duty troops are regularly getting fewer than six hours of sleep every night \u2014 even fewer than that when they\u2019re deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GE is specifically interested in \u201cwatchstanders,\u201d Marinelli said, those who have regularly had to stay up all or most of the night as part of their duties, a common occurrence for sailors on ships underway or troops deployed to combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\t