This volume connects current ideas and concepts about sleep functions and circadian rhythms with the search for novel target-selective sleep-wake therapeutics. To do so, it provides a timely, state-of-the-art overview of sleep-wake mechanisms in health and disease, ongoing developments in drug discovery, and their prospects for the clinical treatment of sleep-disordered patients. It particularly focuses on the concept that sleep and wakefulness mutually affect each other, and the future therapeutic interventions with either sleep- or wake-promoting agents that are expected to not only improve the quality of sleep but also the waking behavior, cognition, mood and other sleep-associated physiological functions.

The chapter 'Sleep Physiology, Circadian Rhythms, Waking Performance and the Development of Sleep-Wake Therapeutics' available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com

First Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology on sleep and wakefulness, in which the pharmacology of sleep is discussed very much in the context of current knowledge of sleep function, its neuroanatomical and neurochemical bases, and including circadian rhythmicity Powerful state-of-the-art methodologies are covered, such as optogenetics and designer receptor manipulations Sleep- and wake-promoting compounds are not discussed in isolation, but within a single volume, which helps the understanding of their interrelationships

Inhalt
Part 1.Basic Principles.- 1. The Function(s) of Sleep.- 2. Neuroanatomical and Neurochemical Bases of Vigilance States.- 3. Omics Approaches in Sleep-Wake Regulation.- 4. The Role of Glia in Sleep Regulation and Function.- 5. Sleep- and Wake-Like States in Small 1 Networks In Vivo and In Vitro.- Part 2. Optogenetics and Pharmacogenetics.- 6. Optogenetic Dissection of Sleep-Wake States In Vitro and In Vivo.- 7. Pharmacosynthetic Deconstruction of Sleep-wake Circuits in the Brain.- 8. Clinical and Experimental Human Sleep-Wake Pharmacogenetics.- Part 3. Sleep-Wake Pathologies.- 9. Clinical Sleep-Wake Disorders I: Focus on Hypersomnias and Movement Disorders During Sleep.- 10. Clinical SleepWake Disorders II: Focus on Insomnia and Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders.- Part 4. Current and New Targets, and Therapeutic Prospects.- 11. GABA Receptors and the Pharmacology of Sleep.- 12. Advances of Melatonin-Based Therapies in the Treatment of Disturbed Sleep and Mood.- 13. Dopamine and Wakefulness: Pharmacology, Genetics, and Circuitry.- 14. Ketamine-Induced Glutamatergic Mechanisms of Sleep and Wakefulness: Insights for Developing Novel Treatments for Disturbed Sleep and Mood.- 15. Adenosine and Sleep.- Part 5. Outlook.- 16. Adenosine and Sleep.- 17. Functional Interactions Between Sleep and Circadian Rhythms in Learning and Learning Disabilities.- 18. Sleep Physiology, circadian rhythms, Waking Performance and the Development of Sleep-Wake Therapeutics.