ReviewSleep medicine reviews2016
Sleep function: Toward elucidating an enigma.
Review in Sleep medicine reviews, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 192 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
192 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 420 citations in OpenAlex.
- Photobiomodulation and sleep quality: systematic review and meta-analysis.Lasers in medical science · 2026Pooled it
- Genome-wide association studies and cross-population meta-analyses investigating short and long sleep duration.Nature communications · 2023Pooled it
- Sleep and spa therapies: What is the role of balneotherapy associated with exercise? A systematic review.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Pooled it
- Early Life Sleep Deprivation and Brain Development: Insights From Human and Animal Studies.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Glymphatic dysfunction across sleep disorders: a meta-analysis of DTI-ALPS studies.Frontiers in neurologyPooled it
- Sleep deprivation and sleep intensity exert distinct effects on cerebral vasomotion and brain pulsations driven by the respiratory and cardiac cycles.PLoS biology · 2025Trial
- Sleep Promoting Effects of Lettuce (Nutrients · 2025Trial
- Effect of a nutraceutical combination on sleep quality among people with impaired sleep: a randomised, placebo-controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Association between habitual sleep duration and Alzheimer's disease: A cross-sectional study based on NHANES 2007-2018.Medicine · 2026Article
- Sleep homeostasis impairment across obstructive sleep apnea severity: findings from a population-based cohort study.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2026Article
- Cerebellar Electrical Activity as a Marker for Predicting Brain Health and Disease: A Review.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Not All Sleep Loss Is Equal: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Rodent Models, Their Neurobiological Validity, and Translational Relevance to Neurological Disease.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Nightly changes in neural activity and auditory processing of song control neurons depend on melatonin.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Research on gut microbiota and metabolic characteristics in patients with sleep disorders after ischemic stroke.Metabolic brain disease · 2026Article
- Sleep deprivation induces anxiety-like behaviors through IL-6 driven astrocyte-GABAergic neuron crosstalk in the PAG-ACC circuit.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- Dietary Protocols to Promote and Improve Restful Sleep: A Narrative Review.Nutrition reviews · 2026Review
- Relationship between A Body Shape Index and sleep disorders among the U.S. population: A cross-sectional analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data.The Journal of international medical research · 2026Article
- Mechanistic Pathways Linking Cannabidiol, Hemp Seed Oil and Black Sesame Oil in Hyperarousal Insomnia: A Narrative Review.Clocks & sleep · 2026Review
- Protein Acylation Modifications in Sleep Disorders: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potential.Journal of molecular neuroscience : MN · 2026Review
- Article
132 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Sleep function remains controversial. Individual perspectives frame the issue of sleep function differently. We briefly illustrate how sleep measurement and the evolution, tissue organization levels, molecular mechanisms, and regulation of sleep could influence one's view of sleep function. Then we discuss six viable theories of sleep function. Sleep serves host-defense mechanisms and conserves caloric expenditures, but these functions likely are opportunistic functions evolving later in evolution. That sleep replenishes brain energy stores and that sleep serves a glymphatic function by removing toxic byproducts of waking activity are attractive ideas, but lack extensive supporting experimental evidence. That sleep restores performance is experimentally demonstrated and has obvious evolutionary value. However, this hypothesis lacks experimentally verified mechanisms although ideas relating to this issue are presented. Finally, the ideas surrounding the broad hypothesis that sleep serves a connectivity/plasticity function are many and attractive. There is experimental evidence that connectivity changes with sleep, sleep loss, and with changing afferent input, and that those changes are linked to sleep regulatory mechanisms. In our view, this is the leading contender for the primordial function of sleep. However, much refinement of ideas and innovative experimental approaches are needed to clarify the sleep-connectivity relationship.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.