The hypothalamic link between arousal and sleep homeostasis in mice
Yamagata T., Kahn MC., Prius-Mengual J., Meijer E., Šabanović M., Guillaumin MCC., van der Vinne V., Huang Y-G., McKillop LE., Jagannath A., Peirson SN., Mann EO., Foster RG., Vyazovskiy VV.
Significance Our current understanding of how sleep is regulated is based upon the model of sleep homeostasis, which defines a variable called Process S as a measure of sleep need, and a so-called “flip-flop” model of state switching, which builds on a notion of a mutually antagonistic relationship between subcortical sleep-promoting and wake-promoting circuits. The neurobiological substrates of the interaction between the sleep switch and Process S are unknown. Our study identifies a previously unrecognized role of hypothalamic circuitry in tuning within-state brain activity or levels of arousal, which in turn determine the homeostatic drive for sleep.