Did you know? Deep sleep might help protect your brain from Alzheimer's

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Study: Strong Deep Sleep May Slow Alzheimer’s Progression, Even With High Orexin

Researchers just published a study in Neurology that’s making people rethink sleep and Alzheimer’s.

They took 60 people, all 60+ with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. Hooked them to sleep machines for one night. Then the next morning, took spinal fluid.

What were they looking for? A chemical called orexin. It’s basically what tells your brain “stay awake” or “go sleep”. They also measured deep sleep waves — the ones where you actually form memories. Then they checked who got worse 3 years later.

What they found

People with high orexin saw their Alzheimer’s progress faster. Not great.

But here’s the interesting part: the people who still had strong deep sleep waves seemed protected.

Even with high orexin, if your sleep spindles were dense, the decline was slower. Stronger spindles = more protection. That’s basically it.

Weird detail: women had way more orexin in their spinal fluid than men did. Researchers don’t know why yet.

The reality check

60 people is a small sample. One night of sleep isn’t long-term data. And they didn’t have a healthy control group to compare to.

So we can’t say “this cures anything”.

The reason this study matters is that orexin drugs already exist. They’re used for narcolepsy. So if deep sleep really does buffer the brain, that could be a path researchers can actually test.

Tbh we need way bigger studies before getting excited. But the link between deep sleep and slowing decline is worth watching.

Attribution
This report is based on research published in Neurology. It has been rewritten and contextualized by the WJHnow editorial team.

Did you know? Boiling in space is backwards

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In Space, Boiling Water Does the Opposite. And That’s a Problem for Rockets.

On Earth when you boil water, bubbles go up.

In space there IS no up.

Scientists have been trying to figure out what that means for rockets and space computers. They use super cold liquids to stay cool, but nobody really knew what boiling looks like in zero gravity.

So researchers from the University of Florida did a “dumb but cool” test. They took liquid nitrogen — basically fake rocket fuel — and flew it on those “vomit comet” planes. The ones that dive to make zero-g for about 20 seconds.

And???

What they found

It went the opposite way of what they thought. At first.

Turns out when bubbles CAN’T float away, they just sit on the hot metal. And that weirdly makes them pull heat out FASTER. Way better cooling.

The lead researcher Youngsup Song said: “yeah we expected worse, got better instead”

BUT. Big but. It also breaks 65% sooner.

Because all those bubbles just sit there and eventually glom together and dry the whole surface out. Then nothing cools and everything would fry.

So it’s like… better, until it’s suddenly catastrophic.

Why it matters

Mars missions. Deep space. Rocket fuel has to stay cold for YEARS.

If engineers can figure out how to design tank walls to stop bubbles from doing this, we might actually make long missions work.

Caveats: they only tested nitrogen. Only for short bursts. And they used a perfect mirror-smooth silicon surface so there were no scratches messing it up. Real rocket tanks are way messier.

Still tho. Kinda cool that space breaks boiling.

Did You Know on What Just Happened NOW

Did you know? Deep sleep might help protect your brain from Alzheimer's

Study: Strong Deep Sleep May Slow Alzheimer’s Progression, Even With High Orexin

What they found

The reality check

Did you know? Boiling in space is backwards

In Space, Boiling Water Does the Opposite. And That’s a Problem for Rockets.

What they found

Why it matters