Activity of a subset of vesicular GABA-transporter neurons in the ventral zona incerta anticipates sleep onset.

We found that 60.2% of the vGAT GABA neurons in the zona incerta had activity that was biased towards sleep (NREM and REMS). A subset of vGAT neurons (NREM-max) became active in advance of sleep onset and may induce sleep by inhibiting the activity of the arousal neurons. Abnormal activation of the NREM-max neurons may drive sleep attacks and hypersomnia.