Clues to sleep disorders may lie in the flies: Recent research by Dr. Giulio Tononi and colleagues at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego suggests that flies must rest to perform their biological functions, like higher animals. The rest periods of flies share important attributes with mammalian (and human) sleep. This finding provides ‘…“the opportunity to employ fly genetics to figure out the function of sleep and

to develop new, safe drugs for improving sleep as well as vigilance,” Tononi explained.

The fruit fly apparently “shares a sophisticated brain function with us,” Tononi said. “However, the

difference between what goes on in the brain of a fly and a human when they are asleep, is probably as

large as the difference between what they think when they are awake,” he added wryly.’