Novel Controversies on the "How and Why" of Sleep

The 2018 meeting will be the third Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on "Sleep Regulation and Function" and will be preceded, as in 2016, by a Gordon Research Seminar organized by and for trainees. The main goal of the GRC meeting is to create an informal, highly interactive forum to freely discuss the newest results and transmit our passion for sleep research to the next generation of scientists. We will examine the latest progress in our understanding of the molecular and electrophysiological mechanisms that regulate sleep and sleep need, as well as the insights provided by different animal models, from worms and flies to rodents. We will also evaluate the increasingly compelling evidence for a role of sleep in promoting growth during development and in maintaining general health at later stages of life. As highlighted by the subtitle of the 2018 meeting - "Novel Controversies on the 'How and Why' of Sleep" – our main goal is to openly and informally address the latest most controversial questions that arise from the progress in our field. These questions include the "forgotten" role of dopamine in sleep/wake regulation and the basis of sleep regulation (local and/or global?); the cellular and systems' costs of wake and how they differ for brain and body; the extent to which worms and flies can inform mammalian sleep research; the essential (or not?) function of REM sleep; the essential (or not?) roles played by specific sleep stages or sleep features, such as slow waves and sleep spindles; the extent to which sleep need varies across individuals; the evidence that chronic sleep restriction leads to reduced lifespan; and the factors (sleep quantity or quality or timing?) underlying the link between sleep disruption and metabolic and cardiovascular dysregulation. While some of these questions are not new, only now do we have specific and powerful tools to address them. For instance, we can specifically disrupt or enhance slow waves and spindles and determine effects on cognition. Similarly, we can now independently manipulate sleep quantity or sleep quality or sleep timing, and assess their effects on general health. The meeting will also foster interdisciplinary cross-talk by featuring several non-sleep research speakers whose work on memory and brain development is directly relevant to the sleep field.