Grant: Project Grant

Persistent daytime sleepiness - or the inability to maintain alert wakefulness - is a major public health concern because it impairs a person's quality of life, leaving them physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. It is estimated that ~80 million North Americans suffer from persistent sleepiness. While sleepiness is typically caused by inadequate amounts of sleep, it is also a major symptom in narcolepsy, a common sleep disorder. An emerging idea in the field of sleep medicine is that dysfunction of wake-promoting brain cells is the underlying cause of sleepiness in narcolepsy. Therefore, identifying how the central nervous system promotes wakefulness is important for understanding the mechanistic nature of sleepiness. But despite decades of research, the brain circuits responsible for triggering wakefulness remain poorly understood. This proposal is designed to test the idea that dopamine cells plays a central role in promoting wakefulness, and that abnormalities in the function of these dopamine cells is a cause of sleepiness in narcolepsy. Insights gained from this research could be used to develop new drug strategies for alleviating sleepiness in narcolepsy as well as sleep apnea and dementia.