Sent to Sleep

If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter and felt rough the next day, you know how important sleep is. But although it’s a fundamental feature of almost all animal life, its complex regulation means its exact function and mechanisms remain elusive. Researchers investigated fruit fly neurons suspected to be involved in sleep. Using a genetic tool to exclusively act in the brain (showing green in the bottom left panel), but nowhere else (such as the ovaries, middle, or gut, right), they dissected the activity of specific neurons – those that protrude into the dorsal fan-shaped body. Activating the neurons made flies sleep more, and helped turn short-term memories into long-term ones, illustrating both direct influence on sleep, and a tangible outcome from increased sleep. Understanding the precise neurons and molecules that control sleep could ultimately lead to more sophisticated insomnia therapies, improved memory consolidation techniques, and sweet dreams for all.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Joseph D. Jones and Brandon L. Holder, and colleagues
• Division of Biological and Biomedical Systems, School of Science and Engineering, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Biology, March 2025