The rising trends of sleeplessness, sleep medications, and more powerful brain imaging technology all conspire to make sleep research particularly relevant today. The work coming out of it is fascinating: A recent paper suggested that humans sometimes sleep with half a brain, something we thought only birds and sea mammals did. Computers are creating images of people’s dreams based on their brain activity. We’re discovering that the cause of many psychiatric disorders could be simple misalignment of circadian rhythms.

It's also important, given how dangerous we know sleep deprivation to be. It's one of the major causes of car crashes, and increases chances of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and obesity. Rumors are going around that Prince's death was linked to staying awake for 6 days prior.

Cognitive Science

A lot of research focuses on how sleep affects memory and learning, how the brain coordinates biological clocks, and what goes on during our brains during sleep. The fact that we can peer into people’s brains while they sleep using fMRIs and other brain imaging technology lets us make quantitative observations that were previously impossible.

Health & Medicine

Around 50-70 million US adults have sleep disorders and 9 million are taking prescription medications for them. Other treatments like sleep apnea surgery and cognitive behavioral therapy are gaining traction. Because of the disastrous effects of sleep deprivation, sleep is a major public health concern.

Genetic, Evolutionary & Animal Sciences

Genetic bases of sleep disorders, the evolution of sleep, animal hibernation and half-brain sleep are other pathways into the black box of our sleeping bodies. Humans are actually the most efficient sleepers of animals our size, and there could be a genetic mutation that causes some humans to be even more efficient.