Sleep articles from across Nature Portfolio

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.

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.

Haynes et al. report a daily, sleep-dependent neuron–glia lipid metabolic cycle. ApoE-dependent lipid transfer from neurons to glia protects neurons from oxidative damage during waking, and lipids are cleared from glia during sleep.

A study reveals a subpopulation of neuropeptide S-expressing neurons that regulates arousal and breathing.

Sleep is typically considered as a state of behavioral disconnection from the outside world. Recordings of brain activity and facial muscle tone during sleep reveal that humans can respond to external stimuli across most sleep stages. These windows of behavioral responsiveness reveal transient episodes of high-cognitive states with electrophysiological signatures suggestive of a conscious state.

Sleep recordings are visually classified in stages by experts in the field, based on consensus international criteria. This procedure is expensive and time-consuming. Automatic sleep scoring systems have, progressively over the years, demonstrated good levels of accuracy. Although the performance of these algorithms is believed to be high, however, there remains widespread skepticism in their daily use in clinical and scientific practice. In this comment to a recent publication of NPJ Digital Medicine, we express the reasons why we think the sleep expert should remain the central pivot in the pendulum between visual and automatic methodology, trying to find a new balance in the scientific debate.

Cardiac disease drives the denervation of the pineal gland, resulting in a loss of neural control of melatonin release and disrupted sleep–wake patterns.

In Drosophila melanogaster, a neuronal pathway is found that mediates the effect of dietary protein ingestion on arousability from sleep.