Hypothalamic regulation of sleep and circadian rhythms

Clifford B. Saper (), Thomas E. Scammell and Jun Lu
Additional contact information
Clifford B. Saper: Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Thomas E. Scammell: Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Jun Lu: Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Nature, 2005, vol. 437, issue 7063, 1257-1263

Abstract: Abstract A series of findings over the past decade has begun to identify the brain circuitry and neurotransmitters that regulate our daily cycles of sleep and wakefulness. The latter depends on a network of cell groups that activate the thalamus and the cerebral cortex. A key switch in the hypothalamus shuts off this arousal system during sleep. Other hypothalamic neurons stabilize the switch, and their absence results in inappropriate switching of behavioural states, such as occurs in narcolepsy. These findings explain how various drugs affect sleep and wakefulness, and provide the basis for a wide range of environmental influences to shape wake–sleep cycles into the optimal pattern for survival.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04284 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:437:y:2005:i:7063:d:10.1038_nature04284

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature04284

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().