Changing concepts on the role of serotonin in the regulation of sleep and waking

Abstract

The story of serotonin and sleep has been developing for more than 50 years, from the discovery in the 1950s that it had a role in brain function and in EEG synchronization. In parallel, the areas of sleep research and neurochemistry have seen enormous developments. The concept of serotonin as a sleep neurotransmitter was based on the effects of lesions of the brainstem raphe nuclei and the effects of serotonin depleting drugs in cats. The description of the firing pattern of the dorsal raphe nuclei changed this concept, initially to the entirely opposite view of serotonin as a waking transmitter. More recently, there has emerged a more complex view on the role of serotonin as a modulator of both waking and sleep. The effects of serotonin on sleep and waking may depend on which neurons are firing, their projection site, which postsynaptic receptors are present at this site, and, not the least, on the functional state of the system and the organism at the particular moment. © 2008 Birkhäuser Verlag AG.