Features
Modus Operandi

While You Were Sleeping
Assessing body position in addition to activity may improve monitoring of sleep-wake periods.
The Literature

Sleep Circuit
A web of cell types in one of the brain’s chief wake centers keeps animals up—but also puts them to sleep.

Sugar Time
Metabolic activity, not light, drives the circadian clock in cyanobacteria.

Out in the Cold
Serotonin’s long-debated role in sleep promotion is temperature-dependent.
Profiles

In Dogged Pursuit of Sleep
Unearthing the root causes of narcolepsy keeps Emmanuel Mignot tackling one of sleep science’s toughest questions.
Scientist to Watch

Christina Schmidt: Chronobiology Crusader
Research Fellow, Cyclotron Research Center, University of Liège. Age: 35
Contributors

Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the March 2016 issue of The Scientist.
Editorial

Things That Go Bump
Scientists still don’t know why animals sleep or how to define the ubiquitous behavior.
Speaking of Science

Speaking of Science
March 2016's selection of notable quotes
Notebook

Learning with the Lights Out
Researchers are uncovering the link between sleep and learning and how it changes throughout our lives.

Perchance to Dream
Mapping the dreaming brain through neuroimaging and studies of brain damage

Slumber Numbers
Ideas abound for why some animal species sleep so much more than others, but definitive data are elusive.

Sleeping for Two
Poor slumber during pregnancy may have consequences beyond gestation.
Thought Experiment

What Lies Sleeping
Why can science still not define this most basic biological process?
Critic at Large

Getting Animal Research Right
Regulatory and compliance expectations for animal-based research are demanding, while public and political scrutiny of animal research is rising.
Lab Tools

Spoiler Alert
How to store microbiome samples without losing or altering diversity

Dial It Up, Dial It Down
Newer CRISPR tools for manipulating transcription will help unlock noncoding RNA’s many roles.
Bio Business

Desperately Seeking Shut-Eye
New insomnia drugs are coming on the market, but drug-free therapy remains the most durable treatment.
Reading Frames

In Your Dreams
Understanding the sleeping brain may be the key to unlocking the secrets of the human mind.
Foundations

Cave Dwellers, 1938
Renowned sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman and a colleague spent a month underground to test the body’s natural rhythms.
Capsule Reviews

Capsule Reviews
Herding Hemingway's Cats, Hair: A Human History, Restless Creatures, and The Mind Club
The Basics

The A B Zzzzs
An overview of the human sleep cycle