Editorial Overview: Neurobiology of Sleep 2017

Introduction

Over the past decade, the advent of viral tools for neuroanatomical tracing and cellular targeting, the ability to manipulate neurons using optogenetic and chemogenetic tools, an expanded range of transgenic mouse strains expressing Cre recombinase, and a renaissance of comparative studies afforded by studies in worms, flies, zebrafish and other species has/had major impact on system neuroscience generally and sleep research, in particular. This issue of Current Opinion of Neurobiology highlights some of the new research insights into sleep/wake control and sleep function afforded by this expanded research armamentarium.