Sleep Counteracts Aging Phenotypes to Survive Starvation-Induced Developmental Arrest in C. elegans (Current Biology)

Wu, Masurat, et al. show that C. elegans can sleep during most conditions and stages of their life. Worms sleep prominently during developmental arrest induced by starvation. A conserved aging gene network controls sleep through a sleep-active neuron, whose activity is required to slow the progression of aging phenotypes, thus allowing survival.