The Causes and Consequences of Sleep in the Human Brain

Sleep transforms nearly every aspect of brain function and is essential for brain health. In this Presidential Lecture, Laura Lewis will discuss how new noninvasive imaging technologies are revealing how sleep arises in the human brain. She will outline key control systems that regulate sleep and behavior. Lewis will also discuss how sleep causes waves of fluid flow in the brain and the relationship between sleep and brain waste clearance, which may be critical for how sleep actively maintains brain health in aging. This work will highlight how sleep profoundly affects the human brain’s high-level cognition and basic housekeeping processes.