# Sleep induction by repetitive mechanosensory stimulation.

> **NIH NIH R21** · THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $429,000

## Abstract

Project Summary
Sleep is essential for a healthy mind and body and is conserved from invertebrates to humans. Sleep serves
multiple functions, including memory consolidation, clearance of harmful metabolites, and prevention of
oxidative stress and premature death. Accumulating evidence suggests a bidirectional relationship between
sleep and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD patients often suffer from sleep
disruptions, while disrupted sleep accelerates AD pathologies. Importantly, improved sleep can ameliorate
memory deficits in a Drosophila model of AD, suggesting that sleep-related interventions could be an effective
strategy for treating AD patients. Sleep is regulated by multiple processes, including sensory processes.
Anecdotal observations suggest that babies sleep better when gently rocked or bounced, and several
experimental studies have confirmed that rocking promotes sleep in humans and mice. However, the
underlying mechanisms for this intriguing phenomenon are not well understood. Fly sleep is similar to human
sleep, and our recent finding that gentle vibration promotes sleep in flies provides an opportunity for
uncovering the mechanisms of sleep induction by mechanical stimulation. We found that flies sleep longer
during vibration and sleep shorter afterward, suggesting vibration-induced sleep (VIS) leads to the
accumulation of sleep credit. Preliminary data suggest VIS can also rescue memory deficits due to sleep loss
and enhance resistance to oxidative stress. Flies with reduced GABA signaling do not sleep more during
vibration, and preliminary data suggest that signaling through a neuropeptide called Diuretic Hormone 44 is
also involved in VIS. Building on these results, the proposed studies will investigate whether VIS confers
cognitive and health benefits of normal sleep in Drosophila models of AD and discover molecular and neural
mechanisms underlying VIS. Our work will provide a novel platform to study the mechanisms of sleep
regulation by repetitive mechanosensory stimulation and may suggest a non-invasive sleep-related
intervention for AD patients.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10608638
- **Project number:** 1R21NS130878-01
- **Recipient organization:** THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Kyunghee Koh
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $429,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10608638

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10608638, Sleep induction by repetitive mechanosensory stimulation. (1R21NS130878-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10608638. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*