What happens in the brain while we sleep? As it turns out, a lot: learning and memory, waste clearance, and metabolism.
Where do we go when we fall asleep?
2022 Neuroscience Year in Review
Read about what excited our writers about neuroscience this year.
Much ado about microglia
Microglia are the brain’s immune cells, but what do they do when they’re not hunting down foreign bacteria or munching on debris in the brain? Can they even influence how you sleep?
Owls, dolphins, squids, and … worms? Oh my!
Ever wonder why so much of neuroscience is done in animal models? What can animal brains tell us about human brains?
Do melatonin supplements help with sleep?
Melatonin is a commonly-used sleep aid, but does it really work?
Why getting better at baseball might require just a little sleep
A new study found that activating memories through learning-associated sound cues during sleep improved the performance of a motor task
The Neuroscience of Narcolepsy
Loss of one type of neuron can throw sleep transitions into chaos
How does sleep affect the blood-brain barrier?
The blood-brain barrier plays a critical role in protecting the brain. However, sleep loss can lower its defenses, increasing the vulnerability of the brain.
Sleeping with one eye open
Some animals sleep with half their brain at a time. Can humans?
Going Under
General anesthetics are used in millions of surgeries each year, yet we still don’t know exactly how they work.
The genetics behind short sleepers
A newly discovered genetic mutation might explain why some people need only 4-6 hours of sleep each night.
Sleep It Off
How and why do we sleep so much when we are sick?
At Attention, Soldier!
Can you stay awake forever with the army’s optimal caffeine concentration calculations?
Forget the turkey: the neuroscience behind the “food coma”
Can you blame your post-meal sleepiness on science?
PennNeuroKnow 