Book Project on the Evolution of Sleep: Phylogenetic and Functional Perspectives
About the Volumes
Evolution of sleep: phylogenetic and functional perspectives, edited by Dr. Patrick McNamara (Boston University, Boston, MA), Dr. Charles Nunn (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig, Germany), and Dr. Robert Barton (Durham University, Durham, England), contains chapters by a ranges of experts on sleep in a very wide range of taxa from insects to humans. Several of the authors use the phylogeny of sleep website and database to provide quantitative analyses in various taxa. This book is currently in press and will be published through Cambridge University Press.
The two primary goals of this edited volume are to synthesize recent advances in our understanding of the evolutionary origins of sleep and its adaptive function, and to lay the groundwork for future evolutionary research by assessing sleep patterns in the major animal lineages. The last text to summarize such knowledge was published more than two decades ago (Mayes, 1983). Research during the past two decades has produced major advances in understanding sleep within particular species. Simultaneously, molecular advances have made it possible to generate phylogenetic trees, while new analytical methods provide the tools to examine macroevolutionary change on these trees. These methods have recently been applied to questions concerning the evolution of distinctive sleep state characteristics and functions. The chapters in the book will highlight these advances through chapters on studies of sleep within particular lineages and comparative analyses that provide insights to variation within and among major taxonomic groups.
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