Slow-wave sleep articles from across Nature Portfolio

Alfonsa et al. show that wakefulness causes shifts in cortical EGABA_A, weakening synaptic inhibition and resulting in markers of local sleep pressure, and identify Cl⁻ regulation as a link between sleep–wake history, cortical activity and behavior.

The hypnotic enhancement of slow wave sleep, the deepest stage of sleep, goes beyond the central nervous system, causing changes at the level of the endocrine and the autonomic nervous systems.

One hallmark of sleep is the slow oscillation, which is often synchronous across the neocortical mantle. How this synchrony is achieved remains unclear. A new study by Narikiyo et al. demonstrates how the claustrum may play a key role in the global control of this rhythm.

The claustrum is identified in two different reptiles — the Australian bearded dragon and the turtle — suggesting it is an ancient brain structure.

In 2008, Vyazovskiy et al. published a seminal study demonstrating that sleep induces a widespread downscaling of synapses that counters the synaptic upscaling that occurred during prior wakefulness. The study laid the groundwork for current research into the ‘where’ and ‘when’ of homeostatic neuronal network regulation during sleep.