This volume connects current ideas and concepts about sleep functions and circadian rhythms with the search for novel target-selective sleep-wake therapeutics. To do so, it provides a timely, state-of-the-art overview of sleep-wake mechanisms in health and disease, ongoing developments in drug discovery, and their prospects for the clinical treatment of sleep-disordered patients. It particularly focuses on the concept that sleep and wakefulness mutually affect each other, and the future therapeutic interventions with either sleep- or wake-promoting agents that are expected to not only improve the quality of sleep but also the waking behavior, cognition, mood and other sleep-associated physiological functions.

The chapter 'Sleep Physiology, Circadian Rhythms, Waking Performance and the Development of Sleep-Wake Therapeutics' available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com

Part 1.Basic Principles.- 1. The Function(s) of Sleep.- 2. Neuroanatomical and Neurochemical Bases of Vigilance States.- 3. Omics Approaches in Sleep-Wake Regulation.- 4. The Role of Glia in Sleep Regulation and Function.- 5. Sleep- and Wake-Like States in Small 1 Networks In Vivo and In Vitro.- Part 2. Optogenetics and Pharmacogenetics.- 6. Optogenetic Dissection of Sleep-Wake States In Vitro and In Vivo.- 7. Pharmacosynthetic Deconstruction of Sleep-wake Circuits in the Brain.- 8. Clinical and Experimental Human Sleep-Wake Pharmacogenetics.- Part 3. Sleep-Wake Pathologies.- 9. Clinical Sleep-Wake Disorders I: Focus on Hypersomnias and Movement Disorders During Sleep.- 10. Clinical SleepWake Disorders II: Focus on Insomnia and Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders.- Part 4. Current and New Targets, and Therapeutic Prospects.- 11. GABA Receptors and the Pharmacology of Sleep.- 12. Advances of Melatonin-Based Therapies in the Treatment of Disturbed Sleep and Mood.- 13. Dopamine and Wakefulness: Pharmacology, Genetics, and Circuitry.- 14. Ketamine-Induced Glutamatergic Mechanisms of Sleep and Wakefulness: Insights for Developing Novel Treatments for Disturbed Sleep and Mood.- 15. Adenosine and Sleep.- Part 5. Outlook.- 16. Adenosine and Sleep.- 17. Functional Interactions Between Sleep and Circadian Rhythms in Learning and Learning Disabilities.- 18. Sleep Physiology, circadian rhythms, Waking Performance and the Development of Sleep-Wake Therapeutics.