A. (Adithya) Sarma

PhD thesis: My one true friend, sleep - The impact of social interactions on sleep, and consequences of sleep loss for memory (2025)

The importance of sleep for brain function is well established, but how sleep loss affects behavior can vary depending on both its cause and context. This thesis explores three distinct but interconnected dimensions of sleep and its regulation. First, I demonstrate that not all forms of sleep deprivation are equivalent—different experimental methods used to keep animals awake induce varying degrees of arousal, which in turn influence behavioral and neural outcomes. Recognizing these differences is essential to accurately interpret the effects of sleep loss. Second, I show that sleep is crucial for the consolidation of long-term social recognition memory in mice. Sleep deprivation immediately after a social encounter leads to social amnesia, but this deficit can be reversed through optogenetic and pharmacological interventions. Third, using fruit flies, I investigate how social context modulates sleep. I find that flies housed in groups tend to wake each other up, suggesting that social environments can actively shape sleep architecture. Together, these findings reveal that both the nature of sleep loss and the social context in which it occurs can influence sleep function and its role in memory.