UCLA

Sleep is known to be necessary for everyday life for humans. Although sleep is common across phylogeny, there still is much not known about sleep, including many of the genetic components that regulate it. In this study, we investigated 10 sleep phenotypes in 24 inbred mouse strains while looking at both spontaneous sleep conditions and recovery following six hours of sleep deprivation beginning at the light onset in a 24-hour light-dark cycle. We found that there were significant differences across strains in ten sleep phenotypes. We then tested the hypothesis that there are strain differences in the homeostatic ability to recover from sleep loss. Our findings suggested that there are strain differences in the recovery from sleep loss across different mouse strains. These findings suggest that sleep homeostasis is sensitive to the genetic differences across these inbred strains. This work furthers our understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying sleep homeostasis.