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Sleep and Wakefulness Research

Sleep and Wakefulness Research is a research topic within Cognitive Neuroscience. Science Explorer counts 45k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the intricate relationship between sleep and memory, focusing on the role of hypocretin/orexin neurons, circadian rhythms, synaptic homeostasis, and narcolepsy. It delves into the mechanisms of memory consolidation during sleep, the impact of different sleep stages on memory formation, and the neural substrates underlying these processes.

  • Sleep
  • Memory
  • Consolidation
  • Hypocretin
  • Neurons
  • Circadian Rhythms
  • Synaptic Homeostasis
  • Learning
  • Orexin
  • Narcolepsy
Research works
45k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+17%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
39% of the 10 largest, 2022-now

Which countries lead Sleep and Wakefulness Research research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (2.8k and 1.3k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 2.8k works
  2. 2 China 1.3k works
  3. 3 Germany 464 works
  4. 4 France 426 works
  5. 5 Japan 423 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 410 works
  7. 7 India 353 works
  8. 8 Italy 350 works
  9. 9 Canada 324 works
  10. 10 Australia 320 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 38.5%China: 18.7%Germany: 6.5%France: 5.9%6 others listed: 30.4%39%largest
United States2,763 · 38.5%China1,339 · 18.7%Germany464 · 6.5%France426 · 5.9%6 others listed2,179 · 30.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Sleep and Wakefulness Research research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harvard University publishes the most Sleep and Wakefulness Research research, followed by Inserm and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Who are the leading researchers in Sleep and Wakefulness Research?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Sleep and Wakefulness Research include George Davey Smith, Mark J. Daly and Ronald C. Kessler.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Mark J. Daly United States 403k citations
  3. 3 Ronald C. Kessler United States 360k citations
  4. 4 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  5. 5 Mika Kivimäki United Kingdom 318k citations
  6. 6 Karl John Friston United Kingdom 310k citations
  7. 7 Matthias Mann Germany 308k citations
  8. 8 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations
  9. 9 Luigi Ferrucci United States 281k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Sleep and Wakefulness Research?

The most cited paper in Sleep and Wakefulness Research is "A New Method for Measuring Daytime Sleepiness: The Epworth Sleepiness Scale" (Murray W. Johns, 1991), with 17,509 citations. Next come "Validation of the Insomnia Severity Index as an outcome measure for insomnia research" (8,166) and "The hippocampus as a spatial map. Preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat" (6,410).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A New Method for Measuring Daytime Sleepiness: The Epworth Sleepiness Scale Murray W. Johns · SLEEP Nov 1991 17,509
2 Validation of the Insomnia Severity Index as an outcome measure for insomnia research Célyne Bastien · Sleep Medicine Jul 2001 8,166
3 The hippocampus as a spatial map. Preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat John M. O'Keefe, Jonathan O. Dostrovsky · Brain Research Nov 1971 6,410
4 Orexins and Orexin Receptors: A Family of Hypothalamic Neuropeptides and G Protein-Coupled Receptors that Regulate Feeding Behavior Takeshi Sakurai et al. · Cell Open access Feb 1998 5,551
5 Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain Lulu Xie, Hongyi Kang, Qiwu Xu et al. · Science Open access 17 Oct 2013 5,527
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Sleep and Wakefulness Research research done?

The largest centres of Sleep and Wakefulness Research research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Paris (France), Boston (United States) and Shanghai (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Bron.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 224 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 192 works
  3. 3 BostonUnited States 138 works
  4. 4 ShanghaiChina 123 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 122 works
  6. 6 TokyoJapan 122 works
  7. 7 New YorkUnited States 112 works
  8. 8 SeoulSouth Korea 104 works
  9. 9 GuangzhouChina 94 works
  10. 10 RomeItaly 88 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BronFR · 24.0 works22×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Sleep and Wakefulness Research than the world average.

See Sleep and Wakefulness Research on the map

Where is the best place to study Sleep and Wakefulness Research?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Stanford University and Medical University of Lodz score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 16.66%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Medical University o…ETH ZurichHarvard UniversityStanford University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 78.615.5%6.1×163 +16.7%
2Stanford UniversityUnited States 64.611.3%6.4×79 +20.2%
3Medical University of LodzPoland 64.630.2%9.5×12 +144.7%
4ETH ZurichSwitzerland 61.525.4%2.1×12 +30.7%
5University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 61.419.0%3.1×36 -7.1%
6University of BernSwitzerland 59.29.6%10.0×46 +46.4%
7Washington University in St. LouisUnited States 58.515.6%3.8×23 +78.4%
8University of ZurichSwitzerland 57.912.2%6.0×35 +7.3%
9Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 56.69.8%4.0×51 +34.8%
10University of PennsylvaniaUnited States 56.018.0%5.3×47 -14.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Sleep and Wakefulness Research, country by country

Is Sleep and Wakefulness Research research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 17% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Sleep and Wakefulness Research.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Sleep and Wakefulness Research as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.039% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Sleep and Wakefulness Research0.041% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Sleep and Wakefulness Research over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Sleep and Wakefulness Research9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Questions people ask

How much research is there on sleep, and is it growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 17% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Sleep and Wakefulness Research.

Is Sleep and Wakefulness Research research growing?
All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

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