Sleep articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  01 May 2024 | Open Access

  Large-language models facilitate discovery of the molecular signatures regulating sleep and activity

  The knowledge in the large language model (LLM), generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) 3.5, is elicited to facilitate the discovery of MRE11 in regulating sleep in the presence of conspecifics by a multi-object video tracking system.

  • Di Peng
  • , Liubin Zheng
  •  & Luoying Zhang

• Article
  02 April 2024 | Open Access

  Dynamic encoding of temperature in the central circadian circuit coordinates physiological activities

  The central circadian circuit’s role in integrating temperature changes is not fully understood. Here, the authors demonstrate that temperature-sensitive DN1a circadian neurons in the Drosophila brain bidirectionally influence downstream circadian neurons, regulating temperature-dependent physiological activities.

  • Hailiang Li
  • , Zhiyi Li
  •  & Fang Guo

• Article
  20 March 2024 | Open Access

  Context memory formed in medial prefrontal cortex during infancy enhances learning in adulthood

  Early life experience contributes to behaviour in later life. Here the authors show in rats, that the infant brain, during a critical period, forms lasting memories of the spatial context of experiences; in adulthood, these memories involving medial prefrontal cortex improve spatial abilities in similar contexts.

  • María P. Contreras
  • , Marta Mendez
  •  & Marion Inostroza

• Article
  30 November 2023 | Open Access

  Wake slow waves in focal human epilepsy impact network activity and cognition

  Slow waves in sleep are crucial for homeostatic regulation of brain function. Here the authors show similar slow wave activity occurs during wakefulness in people with epilepsy to counter the impact of abnormal, epileptic, brain activity.

  • Laurent Sheybani
  • , Umesh Vivekananda
  •  & Matthew C. Walker

• Article
  25 October 2023 | Open Access

  The endocannabinoid N-arachidonoyl dopamine is critical for hyperalgesia induced by chronic sleep disruption

  Generalized body pain and headaches are common experience after sleep disruption. How does sleep disruption lead to generalized pain is unknown. Here, authors reveal that N-arachidonoyl dopamine, an endocannabinoid, is critically implicated in pain perception after sleep disruption.

  • Weihua Ding
  • , Liuyue Yang
  •  & Shiqian Shen

• Article
  05 September 2023 | Open Access

  Pathological pallidal beta activity in Parkinson’s disease is sustained during sleep and associated with sleep disturbance

  Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Here, the authors leverage intracranial recordings in such patients, finding that pathological pallidal activity is present during sleep and associated with sleep disturbance.

  • Zixiao Yin
  • , Ruoyu Ma
  •  & Jianguo Zhang

• Article
  05 August 2023 | Open Access

  A common neuronal ensemble in nucleus accumbens regulates pain-like behaviour and sleep

  A comorbidity of chronic pain is sleep disturbance. Here, authors show the identification and characterization of a common neuronal ensemble in NAc that regulates pain-like behaviour and sleep through its divergent downstream circuit targets.

  • Haiyan Sun
  • , Zhilin Li
  •  & Jun-Li Cao

• Article
  03 July 2023 | Open Access

  A medullary hub for controlling REM sleep and pontine waves

  Pontine waves are a hallmark of REM sleep. Here, the authors identify a distinct population of medullary neurons that constitute a hub in the REM sleep circuitry promoting REM sleep with an enhanced density of pontine waves.

  • Amanda L. Schott
  • , Justin Baik
  •  & Franz Weber

• Article
  05 June 2023 | Open Access

  Wide-spread brain activation and reduced CSF flow during avian REM sleep

  Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is associated with increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow in mammals, but this link has not been studied in birds. Here, the authors show that in pigeons, REM sleep is associated with activation of visual brain regions and a drop in CSF flow, suggesting that REM sleep functions occur at the expense of waste clearance during NREM sleep.

  • Gianina Ungurean
  • , Mehdi Behroozi
  •  & Niels C. Rattenborg

• Article
  22 May 2023 | Open Access

  Allnighter pseudokinase-mediated feedback links proteostasis and sleep in Drosophila

  For homeostatic plasticity, neuronal circuits rely on poorly understood retrograde signals. Here, the authors identify a visual activity-dependent feedback loop mediated by the secreted Allnighter pseudokinase with effects on brain-wide proteostasis and sleep.

  • Shashank Shekhar
  • , Andrew T. Moehlman
  •  & Helmut Krämer

• Article
  17 April 2023 | Open Access

  Distinct astrocytic modulatory roles in sensory transmission during sleep, wakefulness, and arousal states in freely moving mice

  The contribution of astrocytic Ca²⁺ signaling to the modulation of sensory transmission in different brain states remains largely unknown. Here, the authors show two types of Ca²⁺ signals in the mouse barrel cortex with distinct function in sensory transmission during sleep and arousal states.

  • Fushun Wang
  • , Wei Wang
  •  & Jason H. Huang

• Article
  20 February 2023 | Open Access

  Sleep cycle-dependent vascular dynamics in male mice and the predicted effects on perivascular cerebrospinal fluid flow and solute transport

  Why fluid and solute transport in perivascular spaces is enhanced upon sleep remains elusive. Here, the authors show that each sleep cycle state displays unique perivascular dynamics, which enhances predicted fluid movement and solute transport.

  • Laura Bojarskaite
  • , Alexandra Vallet
  •  & Rune Enger

• Article
  13 December 2022 | Open Access

  Reported sleep duration reveals segmentation of the adult life-course into three phases

  Sleep varies within and between individuals. Here, using self-reported sleep duration from a large sample of participants across 63 countries, the authors show three phases in the adult human life-course, consistent across culture, gender, education and other demographics.

  • A. Coutrot
  • , A. S. Lazar
  •  & H. J. Spiers

• Article
  25 February 2022 | Open Access

  Quantifying arousal and awareness in altered states of consciousness using interpretable deep learning

  The authors propose an explainable consciousness indicator using deep learning to quantify arousal and awareness under sleep, anesthesia, and in patients with disorders of consciousness.

  • Minji Lee
  • , Leandro R. D. Sanz
  •  & Seong-Whan Lee

• Article
  10 February 2021 | Open Access

  Genetic determinants of daytime napping and effects on cardiometabolic health

  The genetic basis of daytime napping and the directional effect of daytime napping on cardiometabolic health are unknown. Here, the authors perform a genome-wide association study on self-reported daytime napping in the UK Biobank and Mendelian randomization to explore causal associations.

  • Hassan S. Dashti
  • , Iyas Daghlas
  •  & Richa Saxena

• Article
  16 October 2020 | Open Access

  A role for spindles in the onset of rapid eye movement sleep

  During NREM sleep, spindles emerge from thalamocortical interactions. Here the authors carry out multisite thalamic and cortical recordings in freely behaving mice, to investigate the role of other non-classical thalamic sites in sleep spindle generation.

  • Mojtaba Bandarabadi
  • , Carolina Gutierrez Herrera
  •  & Antoine R. Adamantidis

• Article
  06 July 2020 | Open Access

  Astrocytic Ca²⁺ signaling is reduced during sleep and is involved in the regulation of slow wave sleep

  Despite evidence that astrocytes mediate sleep-dependent function, the involved signaling mechanisms are unknown. The authors show that astrocytic Ca²⁺ signalling exhibits distinct features across the sleep-wake cycle and ablation of this Ca²⁺ signalling pathway impairs slow wave sleep.

  • Laura Bojarskaite
  • , Daniel M. Bjørnstad
  •  & Erlend A. Nagelhus

• Article
  19 June 2020 | Open Access

  Rapid fast-delta decay following prolonged wakefulness marks a phase of wake-inertia in NREM sleep

  Changes in EEG delta-activity are widely used as proxy of sleep propensity. Here the authors demonstrate in mice and humans the presence of two types of delta-waves, only one of which reports on prior sleep-wake history with dynamics denoting a wake-inertia process accompanying deepest non-rapid-eye-movement sleep (NREM) sleep.

  • Jeffrey Hubbard
  • , Thomas C. Gent
  •  & Paul Franken

• Article
  14 February 2020 | Open Access

  Insights into the aetiology of snoring from observational and genetic investigations in the UK Biobank

  Snoring is common in the population and tends to be more prevalent in older and/or male individuals. Here, the authors perform GWAS for habitual snoring, identify 41 genomic loci and explore potential causal relationships with anthropometric and cardiometabolic disease traits.

  • Adrián I. Campos
  • , Luis M. García-Marín
  •  & Miguel E. Rentería

• Article
  12 November 2019 | Open Access

  Multi-ancestry sleep-by-SNP interaction analysis in 126,926 individuals reveals lipid loci stratified by sleep duration

  Sleep duration is associated with an adverse lipid profile. Here, the authors perform genome-wide gene-by-sleep interaction analysis and find 49 previously unreported lipid loci when considering short or long total sleep time.

  • Raymond Noordam
  • , Maxime M. Bos
  •  & Susan Redline

• Article
  13 August 2019 | Open Access

  Genome-wide association analysis of self-reported daytime sleepiness identifies 42 loci that suggest biological subtypes

  A main symptom of chronic insufficient sleep is excessive daytime sleepiness. Here, Wang et al. report 42 genome-wide significant loci for self-reported daytime sleepiness in 452,071 individuals from the UK Biobank that cluster into two biological subtypes of either sleep propensity or sleep fragmentation.

  • Heming Wang
  • , Jacqueline M. Lane
  •  & Richa Saxena

• Article
  13 June 2019 | Open Access

  Large-scale brain modes reorganize between infant sleep states and carry prognostic information for preterms

  Patterns of brain activity during sleep in early stages of life influence brain development and behavior. Here, the authors reveal cortical dynamics underpinning quiet and active sleep states in pre- and full-term infants, and their links to neurodevelopmental outcomes.

  • Anton Tokariev
  • , James A. Roberts
  •  & Luca Cocchi

• Article
  05 April 2019 | Open Access

  Genetic studies of accelerometer-based sleep measures yield new insights into human sleep behaviour

  Quality, quantity and timing of sleep are important factors for overall human health. Here, the authors perform GWAS for sleep traits estimated using wearable accelerometers and identify 47 genetic associations, including 26 novel associations for measures of sleep quality and 10 for nocturnal sleep duration.

  • Samuel E. Jones
  • , Vincent T. van Hees
  •  & Andrew R. Wood

• Article
  05 March 2019 | Open Access

  Sleep increases chromosome dynamics to enable reduction of accumulating DNA damage in single neurons

  Do single neurons require sleep and what is the conserved cellular function of sleep? In this paper, the authors use real-time imaging of chromosomes in individual cells within live zebrafish to show that sleep increases chromosome dynamics, which are necessary to reduce DNA damage that is accumulated during wakefulness.

  • D. Zada
  • , I. Bronshtein
  •  & L. Appelbaum

• Article
  04 March 2019 | Open Access

  Discovery of key whole-brain transitions and dynamics during human wakefulness and non-REM sleep

  Sleep is composed of a number of different stages, each associated with a different pattern of brain activity. Here, using a data-driven Hidden Markov Model (HMM) of fMRI data, the authors discover a more complex set of neural activity states underlying the conventional stages of non-REM sleep.

  • A. B. A. Stevner
  • , D. Vidaurre
  •  & M. L. Kringelbach

• Article
  29 January 2019 | Open Access

  Genome-wide association analyses of chronotype in 697,828 individuals provides insights into circadian rhythms

  GWAS have previously found 24 genomic loci associated with chronotype, an individual’s preference for early or late sleep timing. Here, the authors identify 327 additional loci in a sample of 697,828 individuals and further explore the relationships of chronotype with metabolic and psychiatric diseases.

  • Samuel E. Jones
  • , Jacqueline M. Lane
  •  & Michael N. Weedon

• Article
  06 December 2018 | Open Access

  Neural network analysis of sleep stages enables efficient diagnosis of narcolepsy

  The diagnosis of sleep disorders such as narcolepsy and insomnia currently requires experts to interpret sleep recordings (polysomnography). Here, the authors introduce a neural network analysis method for polysomnography that could reduce time spent in sleep clinics and automate narcolepsy diagnosis.

  • Jens B. Stephansen
  • , Alexander N. Olesen
  •  & Emmanuel Mignot

• Article
  24 October 2018 | Open Access

  Sleep-like cortical OFF-periods disrupt causality and complexity in the brain of unresponsive wakefulness syndrome patients

  Many brain-injured patients retain large cortical islands that are intact, active and reactive but blocked in a state of low complexity, leading to unconsciousness. Here, the authors show that this loss of complexity is due to the pathological engagement of sleep-like neuronal mechanisms.

  • M. Rosanova
  • , M. Fecchio
  •  & M. Massimini

• Article
  29 May 2018 | Open Access

  Regulation of cortical activity and arousal by the matrix cells of the ventromedial thalamic nucleus

  The ventromedial thalamus (VM) is thought to control cortical arousal through its diffuse projections to cortex. Here the authors record and manipulate the activity of calbindin1-positive matrix cells in VM and show that they bidirectionally regulate the sleep-wake transition.

  • Sakiko Honjoh
  • , Shuntaro Sasai
  •  & Chiara Cirelli

• Article
  28 November 2017 | Open Access

  Oscillatory brain activity in spontaneous and induced sleep stages in flies

  Sleep in mammals comprises physiologically and functionally distinct stages. Here, the authors report a transitional sleep stage in Drosophila associated with 7–10 Hz oscillatory activity that can be obtained through activation of the sleep-promoting neurons of the dorsal fan-shaped body.

  • Melvyn H. W. Yap
  • , Martyna J. Grabowska
  •  & Bruno van Swinderen

• Article
  29 September 2017 | Open Access

  Slow-wave sleep is controlled by a subset of nucleus accumbens core neurons in mice

  In addition to circadian and homoeostatic drives, motivational levels influence sleep−wake cycles. Here the authors demonstrate that adenosine receptor-expressing neurons in the nucleus accumbens core that project to the ventral pallidum are inhibited by motivational stimuli and are causally involved in the control of slow-wave sleep.

  • Yo Oishi
  • , Qi Xu
  •  & Michael Lazarus

• Article
  25 September 2017 | Open Access

  Cortical dendritic activity correlates with spindle-rich oscillations during sleep in rodents

  Different stages of sleep, marked by particular electroencephalographic (EEG) signatures, have been linked to memory consolidation, but underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, the authors show that dendritic calcium synchronisation correlates with spindle-rich sleep phases.

  • Julie Seibt
  • , Clément J. Richard
  •  & Matthew E. Larkum

• Article
  08 August 2017 | Open Access

  Formation and suppression of acoustic memories during human sleep

  Though memory and sleep are related, it is still unclear whether new memories can be formed during sleep. Here, authors show that people could learn new sounds during REM or light non-REM sleep, but that learning was suppressed when sounds were played during deep NREM sleep.

  • Thomas Andrillon
  • , Daniel Pressnitzer
  •  & Sid Kouider

• Article
  28 July 2017 | Open Access

  Genetic and neuronal mechanisms governing the sex-specific interaction between sleep and sexual behaviors in Drosophila

  Genes and circuits involved in sleep and sexual arousal have been extensively studied in Drosophila. Here the authors identify the sex determination genes fruitless and doublesex, and a sex-specific P1-DN1 neuronal feedback that governs the interaction between these competing behaviors

  • Dandan Chen
  • , Divya Sitaraman
  •  & Yufeng Pan

• Article
  17 May 2017 | Open Access

  Decoding material-specific memory reprocessing during sleep in humans

  Neuronal learning activity is reactivated during sleep but the dynamics of this reactivation in humans are still poorly understood. Here the authors show that memory processing occurs during all stages of sleep in humans but that reprocessing of memory content in REM and non-REM sleep has different effects on later memory performance.

  • M. Schönauer
  • , S. Alizadeh
  •  & S. Gais

• Article
  27 January 2016 | Open Access

  ADAR-mediated RNA editing suppresses sleep by acting as a brake on glutamatergic synaptic plasticity

  Sleep is postulated to offset buildup in net synaptic strength that occurs during waking experience. Here, the authors identify a role for the RNA editing gene Adar in regulating glutamatergic synaptic plasticity and show that disruption in Adarexpression impairs normal waking in flies.

  • J. E. Robinson
  • , J. Paluch
  •  & W. J. Joiner

• Article
  28 October 2015 | Open Access

  Auditory feedback blocks memory benefits of cueing during sleep

  Exposure to memory cues during sleep improves subsequent memory recall. Here the authors demonstrate that presenting an additional auditory stimulus during a critical time window following the memory cue abolishes the memory benefit of cueing and its oscillatory correlates during sleep in humans.

  • Thomas Schreiner
  • , Mick Lehmann
  •  & Björn Rasch

• Article
  29 January 2015 | Open Access

  Generalization of word meanings during infant sleep

  In adults, oscillatory brain activity during sleep is related to memory consolidation. Here, the authors measure brain activity from infants who are exposed to novel word meanings, and show that infant sleep results in the retention and reorganization of recently encoded memories.

  • Manuela Friedrich
  • , Ines Wilhelm
  •  & Angela D. Friederici

• Article | 19 March 2014

  Practice and sleep form different aspects of skill

  Sleep is implicated in consolidating procedural skills. Here, Song and Cohen train subjects on a repeating sequence of key-presses and show that practice contributes to transitional information-based aspects of skill whereas sleep contributes to ordinal information-based aspects of skill.

  • Sunbin Song
  •  & Leonardo G. Cohen

• Article | 04 December 2013

  The neuropeptide NLP-22 regulates a sleep-like state in Caenorhabditis elegans

  The Caenorhabditis elegans neuropeptide NLP-22 is regulated by a larval circadian clock that is similar to circadian clocks in mammals. Nelson et al. show that NLP-22, expressed in Caenorhabditis elegansRIA interneurons, regulates a sleep-like behavioural quiescence.

  • M.D. Nelson
  • , N.F. Trojanowski
  •  & D.M. Raizen

• Article | 28 February 2012

  Network physiology reveals relations between network topology and physiological function

  Humans are a network of complex physiological systems, but quantifying these diverse systems is a challenge. This study presents a method to show that each physiological state is characterized by a specific network structure, demonstrating a connection between network topology and function.

  • Amir Bashan
  • , Ronny P. Bartsch
  •  & Plamen Ch. Ivanov