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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Manipulation of Rhythmic Food Intake in Mice Using a Custom-Made Feeding System
Published on: December 16, 2022
Staying awake for dinner: hypothalamic integration of sleep, feeding, and circadian rhythms
1Department of Neurology and Program in Neuroscience, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. csaper@bidmc.harvard.edu
Abstract:
Daily patterns of sleep and wakefulness are inextricably linked to the regulation of feeding and energy metabolism. Both are affected by homeostatic as well as circadian drives, and both are tightly linked to thermoregulation. In this chapter, we review the basic drain circuitry that regulates sleep and wakefulness, including the flip-flop switch relationship of the arousal system and the ventrolateral preoptic sleep-promoting neurons. We then examine the role of the orexin/hypocretin neurons, which stabilize the switch while driving both wakefulness and foraging for food. We also review the role of the subparaventricular nucleus and the dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus in circadian integration and modulation of both feeding and wake-sleep patterns.
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