Monitoring sleep and arousal in zebrafish

Abstract

Zebrafish has emerged in the past 5 years as a model for the study of sleep and wake behaviors. Experimental evidence has shown that periods of behavioral quiescence in zebrafish larvae and adults are sleep-like states, as these rest bouts are regulated by the circadian cycle, are associated with decreases in arousal, and are increased following rest deprivation. Furthermore, zebrafish share with mammals a hypocretin/orexin system that promotes wakefulness, and drugs that alter mammalian sleep have similar effects on zebrafish rest. In this chapter, we review the zebrafish sleep literature and describe a long-term, high-throughput monitoring system for observing sleep and wake behaviors in larval zebrafish.