Research shows that humans aren’t the only animals whose imaginations run wild while they sleep.

By linking blood flow patterns to bioelectric signals in the brains of sleeping volunteers, scientists are studying the order in which brain regions fall asleep and wake up.

More cancer cells are shed from primary tumors when individuals are asleep than when they’re awake, according to observations in mouse models and a small cohort of breast cancer patients.

Rechtschaffen sought to understand the evolutionary purpose of shut-eye.

Buildup of a DNA-repair protein in brain cells spurs shut-eye in the fish, a study finds, and similar results in mice suggest the mechanism is widespread in animals.

Researchers discover that when the mind wanders or goes blank, some parts of the brain behave as they do during sleep.

He famously contradicted Sigmund Freud’s views on the meaning of dreams.

Dreamers answered experimenters’ questions or solved simple math problems, showing that complex two-way communication between the dreaming and waking world is possible.

See Reading Frames coauthor Robert Stickgold discuss the relationship between sleeping, dreaming, and memory.

Ferreting out the biological function of dreaming is a frontier in neuroscience.

Researchers are experimenting with a variety of tools, from brain stimulation to audiovisual equipment, to try to take control of the sleeping brain.

Meet some of the people featured in the December 2020 issue of The Scientist.

The scenarios that run through our sleeping brains may help us explore possible solutions to concerns from our waking lives.

Technologies such as noninvasive brain stimulation and virtual reality gaming offer insights into how dreams arise and what functions they might serve.

In mice, the brain’s main glial cell type exhibits distinctive patterns of activity across the sleep-wake cycle and influences the response to sleep deprivation.

Accumulation of the protein was more likely to be found in the brains of people who slept less well years earlier, according to a new study.

The Stanford University researcher charted the human sleep cycle and characterized numerous sleep disorders.

The activation of young brain cells in adult mice is necessary not just for forming memories, but consolidating them during rapid eye movement sleep, a study shows.

The gene, aquaporin-4, is critical in rodents for the cerebrospinal fluid bath the brain gets during sleep. It’s now also tied to slow wave electrical activity during deep sleep in people.