Homeostatic control of deep sleep and molecular correlates of sleep pressure in Drosophila

Homeostatic control of sleep is typically addressed through mechanical stimulation-induced forced wakefulness and the measurement of subsequent increases in sleep. A major confound attends this approach: biological responses to deprivation may reflect a direct response to the mechanical insult rather than to the loss of sleep. Similar confounds accompany all forms of sleep deprivation and represent a major challenge to the field. Here, we describe a new paradigm for sleep deprivation in Drosophila that fully accounts for sleep-independent effects. Our results reveal that deep sleep states are the primary target of homeostatic control and establish the presence of multi-cycle sleep rebound following deprivation. Furthermore, we establish that specific deprivation of deep sleep states results in state-specific homeostatic rebound. Finally, by accounting for the molecular effects of mechanical stimulation during deprivation experiments, we show that serotonin levels track sleep pressure in the fly’s central brain. Our results illustrate the critical need to control for sleep-independent effects of deprivation when examining the molecular correlates of sleep pressure and call for a critical reassessment of work that has not accounted for such non-specific effects.