Dr. Szymusiak has observed substantial progress within the past 25 years in isolating the mechanisms by which the brain induces sleep. Although researchers were once tentatively looking for clues in the anterior hypothalamus, because of the frequency with which sleep problems were related to various types of pathology in this area, there is now an opportunity to follow specific molecular pathways to neurons that are understood to be players in, if not mediators of, the transition from wakefulness to sleep.
—Ted Bosworth