Exploring Phylogeny to Find the Function of Sleep

Overview

Journal Nat Rev Neurosci

Specialty Neurology

Date 2018 Dec 22

PMID 30573905

Citations 81

Authors

Ron C Anafi

Matthew S Kayser

David M Raizen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

During sleep, animals do not eat, reproduce or forage. Sleeping animals are vulnerable to predation. Yet, the persistence of sleep despite evolutionary pressures, and the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation, indicate that sleep serves a function or functions that cannot easily be bypassed. Recent research demonstrates sleep to be phylogenetically far more pervasive than previously appreciated; it is possible that the very first animals slept. Here, we give an overview of sleep across various species, with the aim of determining its original purpose. Sleep exists in animals without cephalized nervous systems and can be influenced by non-neuronal signals, including those associated with metabolic rhythms. Together, these observations support the notion that sleep serves metabolic functions in neural and non-neural tissues.

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