New fruitfly sleep gene promotes the need to sleep

All creatures great and small, including fruitflies, need sleep. The timing of when we sleep versus are awake is controlled by cells in tune with circadian rhythms of light and dark. Most of the molecular components of that internal clock have been worked out. On the other hand, what drives how much we sleep is less well understood. Researchers report a new protein involved in the homeostatic regulation of sleep in the fruitfly.http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/h...