Sleep Your Way to a Healthy Brain (Ep 344)

Your brain is a masterpiece — the most complex organ in the universe, using up to 25% of your body’s energy. But by day’s end, it’s cluttered with waste. Sleep isn’t just rest. It’s divine design for deep renewal.

In this episode, discover why sleep is your secret weapon for brain health and spiritual clarity. We’ll explore the power of the glymphatic system (your brain’s “night crew”) and why consistent sleep is more vital than even diet and exercise.

Focus points include:

• The brain’s need to detox daily
• How sleep deprivation hijacks your health
• What the glymphatic system does while you rest
• God's smart design for body, mind, and spirit

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See the full episode transcript below.

👉 Enhanced show notes: JesusSmart/344

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Hey there, my friend. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Brian Del Turco with the Jesus Smart X Podcast, episode 344.

First, an apology—it’s been about three weeks since the last episode. Life has been a little crazy, but we’re back on track. This weekly podcast is meant to release consistently, and we’re tightening that up moving forward.

Today’s episode is a little different. I’m sharing a little research I did and a short article I wrote on JesusSmart.com: Sleeping Our Way to a Better Brain.

I truly believe God gives us wisdom for every dimension of life.

When Solomon asked for wisdom in the Old Testament, it wasn’t abstract philosophy. It was practical, skillful wisdom for living—how to make judgments, how to govern, even insights into nature and the created order. That same kind of wisdom is available to us today.

The Most Complex Matter in the Universe

Your brain is the most complex matter in the universe. At just 2–3 pounds, it consumes 20–25% of your total energy—oxygen, nutrients, and fuel. But with such high energy use comes waste.

By the end of a busy day filled with thousands of thoughts, conversations, and decisions, your brain literally accumulates waste products. If that waste isn’t cleared, your brain underperforms. Over time, it can even open the door to serious issues like dementia or Alzheimer’s.

This is why protecting and cleansing your brain is critical—not only for long-term health, but so you can think sharply and finish strong in your calling.

Three Keys to a Cleaner, Stronger Brain

Researchers highlight three lifestyle habits that help your brain clear waste and stay healthy:

Regular exercise. Walking, running, aerobic movement, resistance training—all of these support brain health.

Maintaining healthy blood pressure. High blood pressure harms the brain. Medication may be necessary at times, but lifestyle shifts like diet and exercise can also make a difference.

A brain-friendly diet. Vegetables, healthy fats, and antioxidants are key. Think olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, nuts. Avoid seed oils like canola or soybean oil, which damage the body and brain.

But the biggest factor may surprise you ...

Quality Sleep:...

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey there, my friend.
Welcome to the podcast.
This is Brian del Turco,episode 344, Jesus Smart X podcast.
Listen, my apologies.
It's been three weeks since anepisode was released.
It's been a crazy time.
I won't go into details, butthis is a weekly podcast, so we're

(00:26):
meant to release weekly.
And we're going to be doingsome, you know, better moving forward.
We normally are good withthat, but I wanted to release an
episode today.
This is a little bit different.
Some research I did and asmall article that I wrote on the
website jesussmart.comsleeping our way to a better brain.

(00:49):
Okay.
And I do believe that Godgives us wisdom.
I think that when we readabout Solomon in the Old Testament,
he asked for wisdom for thesake of God's people, that he would
be able to rule well as a kingand render good sound judgments for

(01:10):
the sake of God's people.
God really liked that, by the way.
And he promised blessings andrewards to Solomon because of his
prioritization of God's people.
That right there just tells us something.
It's.
It's a.
It's a God hack, a holy hack.
That when we prioritize God'speople, whom he loves so dearly,

(01:35):
there are blessings andrewards that come to our life.
But God also gave him wisdomabout trees, about nature, about
all kinds of practical issues.
The Hebraic Old Testamentunderstanding of wisdom, to my.
My understanding, it's notjust like the Greek abstract wisdom,

(01:56):
philosophizing, but it's veryconcrete, it's very practical, skillful.
How to live skillfully, how tolive artfully, how things work best.
The Hebraic understanding of wisdom.
I'm really drawn to that.
Well, sleeping our way to abetter brain.
I want to share something with you.
I think it's very important.

(02:17):
Let me just say this.
To begin with, our brain isthe most complex matter in the universe.
There is no matter morecomplex than what's between your
ears.
The most powerful computersthat we can develop don't come close
to competing with it.

(02:38):
Do you know that your brain isthe busiest organ in your body?
It only weighs 2 to 3 pounds,but it consumes 20 to 25% of your
total energy.
Oxygen and nutrients and energy.
Here's the thing, though, whenthat much energy is consumed, there's

(03:05):
going to be waste products.
You're saying, wait a minute,we're talking about the brain.
Why are we talking about wasteproducts and sleeping our way to
a better brain?
Well, I'm glad you've asked that.
Question.
Each day, these waste productsbuild up throughout our body, including
our brain.
And by the end of the day,after we've made all these decisions

(03:30):
and worked and thought all dayand made conversation and generated
thoughts, I don't know howthey measure, measure these things.
They say that our brain canthink something like 50, 60, 70,000
thoughts per day.
Some of us have more thoughtsthan others.
Okay.

(03:50):
Some of us, our minds run too hot.
Okay?
But by the end of the day, ourbrain is dirty.
What do we mean?
Just from being busy all day.
And it produces, literally inour brains, waste products.
Just like throughout our body,waste products are, are produced.

(04:13):
This is an important key tobrain health.
You know, we want to do thingsin our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 20s even,
that mitigate againstdementia, Alzheimer's, against cognitive
decline later in life.
God wants you to have a strong brain.

(04:34):
He wants you to finish strong.
We need you to think hard andlong and strong throughout the course
of your life.
So our brains have to havethis opportunity to remove the waste,
because there is a real effectif this doesn't happen.
A dirty brain performs low andeventually can open itself to disease.

(04:58):
And this is where theimportance of sleep comes in.
Okay, if we mess up our sleep,we can mess up our brain.
Now we know that these threethings have a positive impact on
cleaning our brains.
Number one, this is not goingto be surprising.

(05:18):
Regular exercise, I'm talkingabout walking, movement, you have
to move, running, otheraerobic exercise, even weightlifting
and resistance training.
Even body resistance traininghelps our brains.
But regular, consistentexercise, here's another one that

(05:41):
can creep up on people.
We've got to be diligent about this.
Maintaining healthy blood pressure.
High blood pressure worksagainst the well being of our brain.
You may have to be on medication.
I'm currently on a medicationfor it, but I'm also doing other
things in terms of eating, exercising.

(06:04):
The last medical visit I had,I was told, well, if you keep it
up, possibly this med can beeliminated from your life.
So we'll see.
But at any rate, maintaininghealthy blood pressure.
And then thirdly, a diet richin vegetables, healthy fats and antioxidants.

(06:29):
Okay, vegetables, healthy fats.
You want like olive oil,coconut oil, what's that other oil
that's good to cook with?
It's escaping me at the moment.
You want to stay away fromseed oils like canola oil, soybean
oil and other seed oils.

(06:50):
They're bad for our bodies,they're bad for our brains.
We want to have healthy oils,healthy fats in our diet.
Fat, healthy fat is veryimportant to our brain.
Now, the most important thing,though, in addition to exercise,
healthy blood pressure, a dietrich in vegetables, healthy fats

(07:11):
and antioxidants, the mostimportant thing, according to research,
may be.
You got it.
Sleep.
In The United States, 30% ofadults and 66% of adolescents are
regularly sleep deprived.

(07:32):
And this affects our learning.
Sleep deprivation affectsmemory and even our mood.
Sleep deprivation contributesto inflammation in our body.
It's a silent killer.
High blood pressure, and it'slinked to diabetes and obesity.

(07:54):
Sleep deprivation, adults, howmany hours of sleep do we need for
optimal Brain Health?
About seven to eight.
About seven to eight hours.
And adolescents,unsurprisingly, may need 10 hours.
Okay, now sleep deprivationcan cause serious brain and bodily

(08:17):
harm.
Now here's our secret weaponto maintain a clean brain.
This is really what it's about.
Sleeping our way to a better brain.
Is sleeping our way to acleaner brain?
Okay.
We have something in our bodythat God has designed called the
glymphatic system.

(08:40):
And it's much more active whenwe sleep.
And what does it do?
It flushes away.
This system in our body islike a, like a, a vacuum system or
something.
It's a cleaning system.
It flushes away toxicsubstances between the cells in our
bodies and between the cells,the neurons in our brains, the glymphatic

(09:07):
system.
You got CHAT GPT, look it up.
G L Y M P H A T I C Ask itwhat it does.
Ask AI how the glymphaticsystem helps your brain.
I when I researched thisoriginally, I AI really wasn't a

(09:29):
thing.
I know it's going to be there, though.
CHAT GPT has become a thoughtpartner for me, if you know what
I mean.
So the glymphatic system issort of like this overnight cleaning
crew that comes in and cleansthe building.
It's a cycle.
It's a system.
Okay, so here's a breakdown ofhow it works.

(09:52):
Your brain cells performautophagy, which means self eating.
It mops up diseased anddamaged bits of protein and metabolic
waste.
Then a special nervous system,special nervous system cells.

(10:12):
This is the whole cycle of thecleanup process.
These nervous system cells,they sweep in and they scavenge additional
waste.
And the glymphatic systemflushes out dirty fluid and molecules
from inside your brain tissuethrough a network of pathways, and

(10:36):
clean fluid replaces it.
These lymphatic vesselssurrounding your brain deliver the
waste to your lymphaticsystem, which rids the body of toxins,
waste, and other unwanted material.
So because this, this superimportant system, this glymphatic

(10:58):
system is much more activewhen we sleep, we don't want to short
change this process over time.
Our brains can age anddeteriorate in their performance
and become vulnerable todisease because of this not sufficiently

(11:18):
clean toxicity.
So you see, I'm going to behonest with you.
Let's talk about spiritualwarfare for a second.
This podcast believes inspiritual warfare, the unseen battle.
It manifests in many ways.
And spiritual warfare againstyou can manifest very practically,

(11:41):
very concretely, like sleep deprivation.
You have a right to a goodnight's sleep.
Psalms 127 says, Unless theLord builds a house, they labor in
vain, who build it.
Unless the Lord guards thecity, the watchman stays awake in
vain.
It also says in that shortpsalm that depending on the translation
you read, the Lord gives hisbeloved sleep, or it could be translated,

(12:05):
he gives to his beloved intheir sleep.
So pray for good sleep, youknow, keep a clear relationship with
the Lord.
Do the things, you know, thesleep hygiene things before you go
to sleep, minimize screentime, try to go to bed and wake up

(12:29):
at the same time all the time.
I think the experts say do itseven days a week, even the weekends
can disrupt that cycleapparently, but certainly do it for
the work week, five days a week.
And do the things with sleephygiene, a cooler room if you need

(12:50):
to, use white noise, if youneed to pray and meditate before
you go to sleep.
Okay, anything to help yousleep better and ask the Lord for
better sleep because thissystem, this cycle works optimally
as we sleep.
So what do you think?
We want to ask the Lord forbetter brain health.

(13:13):
We want to ask the Lord for discipline.
And we're going to pray aboutthis in just a moment, if you don't
mind.
We want to ask the Lord fordiscipline, to live well, eat well,
drink enough, hydrate well,exercise, manage stress, sleep better.

(13:37):
And, and we want to do thethings, you know, maintain healthy
blood pressure levels.
And we want to do these thingsthat, that help us, empower us to
have better brain health andthen ask the Lord for better brain
health.
The Lord blesses your activity.

(13:58):
He blesses what you build, heblesses what you work on.
Okay, don't.
Let's not just try to ask theLord for something.
And then all the practicalthings we do work against that.
He blesses what's in order.
And so I hope this isinteresting to you.

(14:19):
I hope it's helpful.
I've heard experts say thenumber one thing we can do for our
total well being.
The baseline thing is sleep,healthy, sufficient sleep.
On top of that, you can stackexercise, nutrition, stress reduction,

(14:40):
all of those elements.
But sleep is foundational tobetter well being.
I love the Old Testament word shalom.
If you've been around theBible or been around teaching, you've
probably heard that word andyou probably know that it's, it means
peace.
It does mean peace, but it's abigger word than that.

(15:02):
It's a very pregnant Hebrewword which means well being.
Nothing missing, prosperity,just total well being.
It's, it's a word which islike homeostasis.
Shalom in our life releasesthe full potential of the human being,

(15:26):
the complete well being.
And so let's pray for that now.
And we just want to do thosepractical things which are in alignment
with our prayer, things thatGod can bless.
Father, we thank you for theway you've made our bodies.
We are fearfully andwonderfully made, and that our soul

(15:46):
knows very well.
Psalm 139.
You have made us withrecuperative capacities.
You have made us with reboundability in our bodies, in our, in
our brain.
You have designed systems ofprotection, immunity, cleansing.

(16:09):
We live in a dirty world.
We live in a polluted world, Father.
Even in the thought realm, welive in a dirty world.
And we just, even physicallywe need the rest that we need so
that the hours we are awakeare optimal.

(16:31):
We have better mood, betterhormonal balance, better functioning,
and we're preserving our brainfor the long term.
Help us to sleep.
We pray that you would help usto sleep well, that we would do the
things we know we need to doto sleep well.
And we also pray your addedblessing on all of our works of our

(16:52):
hands and what we applyourselves to in terms of health and
wellness.
In Jesus name, Amen.
If you'd like to take a lookat a short article I've written about
this, you can go tojesussmart.com Sleep Better Brain.
It's like sleep hyphen, betterhyphen brain.

(17:15):
This is episode 344 on the podcast.
We will have a show notes pagefor this episode coming [e-mail]
maybe you know somebody whowould value this.
Can you think of somebody whoneeds this?
I'm sure you can becausethere's such a problem with sleep

(17:37):
today and there's such a questfor wellness that people need and
some are pursuing.
Share this episode with them.
They may enjoy it.
And I think there's manythings we can talk about related
to brain health and perhaps wewill will do that here.
I mean my thinking about beingJesus smart, you know, it's like

(17:59):
get Jesus smart.
Jesus knows how humanflourishing works.
My thinking about Jesus smartincludes the practical physical,
mental, well being as well asother practical areas.
So we, we, we're grateful forGod's wisdom and God's information.
We have access to the word ofGod can ask the Holy Spirit to teach

(18:22):
you.
Yes you can.
Holy Spirit is the greatest AIin the universe, the greatest search
engine.
Holy Spirit knows everything.
And you can ask him.
Lead me, Holy Spirit, to abook I need right now or lead me
to the right videos to watch.
Lead me to articles, you know,Lead me to the right people in my

(18:47):
life that can motivate me inthis and that can share ideas with
me.
Ask the Holy Spirit to do thatand keep asking him and watch what
happens.
He will lead you.
You will grow in understanding.
All right.
I appreciate you my friend.
We'll catch you next time.