This shows the importance of sleep, but also adds to the question of what we can do to facilitate this process while awake. It seems the best we can do when we are awake, is to use neuroprotective substances to prevent the build-up of the plaques or to sequester them for easier breakdown while sleeping.

For example, Noopept, the di-peptide form of the nootropic piracetam, has been shown to lower levels of amyloid plaques via "hydrophobic interactions with toxic amyloid oligomers, [which] prompts their rapid sequestration into larger fibrillar amyloid aggregates." In the linked study, researchers concluded that the "mitigating effect of noopept against amyloid oligomeric cytotoxicity may offer additional benefits to the already well-established therapeutic functions of this new pharmaceutical."[1]

The abilities of substances like this to protect the brain as we age, are examples of why we need to move major parts of the medical field to focus on preventative and rejuvenating medicine, instead of just treatment for the final symptoms of a disease that has been in progress for decades...

Background info:

This is a process of what is now called the glymphatic system. The scientest quoted in the article (M. Nedergaard), previously coined the term "glymphatic" in her paper[2] "The Garbage Truck." She was a follow-on author on the paper referenced in the NPR story, "Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain." It is a pretty interesting paper and I have a full-text copy available in my private research vault [3].

[1] http://nootroo.com/researchvault/neuroprotective-and-nootrop...

[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3749839/pdf/nihm...

[3] http://nootroo.com/researchvault/sleep-drives-metabolite-cle...