The paper presents a state of the art review of the anatomical and physiological foundations of awareness, consciousness, arousal and sleep phenomena and provides current definitions. We describe 20(th) century discoveries that were milestones in the understanding of central nervous system function. Structures that are specifically involved in the quantitative and qualitative aspects of awareness are characterised here. We also describe the relationships between particular groups of neurons, their positive and negative feedback loops, and the neurotransmitters engaged in states of arousal and sleep.