Worm genetics reveal important pathways for sleep regulation
Although the regulation of sleep—how much, when, and how sleep occurs—is mainly considered to be controlled by the brain, sleep deprivation also affects the body, and signals from the body can affect sleep. However, the ways in which the body regulates sleep are largely unknown. In a recent study published in Cell Reports, Japanese researchers have revealed that sleep in worms is regulated by the body via cellular pathways that maintain proper protein function, from synthesis to degradation.