# Sexually-Dimorphic Regulation of Sleep

> **NIH NIH R01** · THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $341,250

## Abstract

Sleep is essential for healthy mind and body. It is regulated by homeostasis, by which accumulated
sleep drive during wakefulness leads to increased propensity toward sleep. However, we can stay up
late if we have something important or interesting to do, for example, take care of a baby or read a
fascinating book. In other words, sleep is also regulated by motivational states. Thus sleep drive
competes with other motivational drives to decide whether we sleep or engage in other important or
interesting activities. We have recently shown that sex drive profoundly affects male sleep in
Drosophila and that a subset of octopaminergic neurons (octopamine is analogous to human
norepinephrine) mediates sleep suppression by male sex drive. Previous studies have shown that
female flies sleep less and lay more eggs after mating. Thus both males and females adjust their
sleep patterns to meet reproductive needs. However, the neural mechanisms of how sleep and
reproductive behaviors are balanced are not well understood. In preliminary studies for this proposal,
we identified several previously uncharacterized neuronal populations for balancing sleep and
reproductive behaviors in males and females. Two of the newly identified populations are
dopaminergic, suggesting that octopamine and dopamine signaling pathways cooperate to integrate
sleep and reproductive behaviors. We will determine the anatomical and physiological connectivity
among the various neuronal populations, and investigate their role in sleep and reproductive
behaviors using a combination of behavioral analysis, calcium imaging, circuit tracing,
immunohistochemistry, and generation of new drivers for precise manipulation of specific neurons.
Our proposed studies offer an excellent opportunity to discover basic neural mechanisms and general
organizing principles that underlie the balance between competing drives. Investigating how sleep
regulatory mechanisms communicate with neural mechanisms for sexually-dimorphic behaviors using
neuromodulators such as octopamine and dopamine may lead to a better understanding of how the
human brain integrates sleep drive and other motivational states.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10475646
- **Project number:** 5R01NS109151-05
- **Recipient organization:** THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Kyunghee Koh
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $341,250
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-17 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10475646

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10475646, Sexually-Dimorphic Regulation of Sleep (5R01NS109151-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10475646. Licensed CC0.

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