Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Sleep is of the brain, by the brain and for the brain

Nature volume 437, pages 1254–1256 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Sleep is a widespread biological phenomenon, and its scientific study is proceeding at multiple levels at the same time. Marked progress is being made in answering three fundamental questions: what is sleep, what are its mechanisms and what are its functions? The most salient answers to these questions have resulted from applying new techniques from basic and applied neuroscience research. The study of sleep is also shedding light on our understanding of consciousness, which undergoes alteration in parallel with sleep-induced changes in the brain.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Behavioural states in humans.

References

  1. Sherrington, C. Man on his Nature (Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Pavlov, I. I. Conditioned Reflexes. An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex (Dover, New York, 1960).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Aserinsky, E. & Kleitman, N. Regularly occurring periods of eye motility and concomitant phenomena during sleep. Science 118, 273–274 (1953).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Dement, W. C. & Kleitman, N. The relation of eye movements, body motility, and external stimuli to dream content. J. Exp. Psychol. 55, 543–553 (1957).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Kety, S. S., Landau, W. M., Freygang, W. H., Rowland, L. P. & Sokoloff, L. The local circulation of the living brain; values in the unanesthetized and anesthetized cat. Trans. Am. Neurol. Assoc. 80, 125–129 (1955).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Hobson, J. A. Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Maquet, P. et al. Functional neuroanatomy of human rapid-eye movement sleep and dreaming. Nature 383, 163–166 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Nofzinger, E. A., Mintun, M. A., Wiseman, M. B., Kupfer, D. J. & Moore, R. Y. Forebrain activation in REM sleep: An FDG PET study. Brain Res. 770, 192–201 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Braun, A. R. et al. Regional cerebral blood flow throughout the sleep-wake cycle — an (H2O)-O-15 PET study. Brain 120, 1173–1197 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Achermann, P. & Borbély, A. A. Low frequency (<1 Hz) oscillations in the human sleep electroencephalogram. Neuroscience 81, 213–222 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Huber, R., Ghilardi, M. F., Massimini, M. & Tononi, G. Local sleep and learning. Nature 430, 78–81 (2004).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Steriade, M., Timofeev, I. & Grenier, F. Intracellular activity of various neocortical cell-classes during the natural wake-sleep cycle. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. 25, 1661 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Allison, T. & Cicchetti, D. V. Sleep in mammals. Ecological and constitutional correlates. Science 194, 732–734 (1976).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Freud, S. An Outline of Psychoanalysis (Hogarth Press, London, 1949).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Fosse, M., Fosse, R., Hobson, J. A. & Stickgold, R. Dreaming and episodic memory: a functional dissociation? J. Cogn Neurosci. 15, 1–9 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Libet, B., Gleason, C. A., Wright, E. W. and Pearl, D. K. Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential). The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act. Brain 106, 623–642 (1983).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Metzinger, T. On Being No One (MIT, Cambridge MA, 2003).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  18. Fosse, R., Stickgold, R. & Hobson, J. A. Brain-mind states: reciprocal variation in thoughts and hallucinations. Psychol. Sci. 12, 30–36 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Hobson, J. A. & Steriade, M. In Handbook of Physiology: The Nervous System Vol. 4 (eds Mountcastle, V. and Bloom, F. E.) 701–823. (Am. Physiol. Soc., Bethesda, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 2nd Floor East, 74 Fenwood Road, 401 Park Drive, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    J. Allan Hobson

Authors
  1. J. Allan Hobson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Allan Hobson.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Author Information Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hobson, J. Sleep is of the brain, by the brain and for the brain. Nature 437, 1254–1256 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04283

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04283

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing