Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Endocrinology Volume 2010, Article ID 967435, 2 pages doi:10.1155/2010/967435 Editorial Sleep and the Endocrine Brain Jessica A. Mong,1 Deborah Suchecki,2 Kazue Semba,3 and Barbara L. Parry4 1 Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutic and the Program in Neuroscience, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA 2 Department of Psychobiology, Universidade Federal de Sao˜ Paulo, 04024-002 Sao˜ Paulo, SP, Brazil 3 Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4R2 4 Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, CA 92037-0603, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Jessica A. Mong,
[email protected] Received 31 December 2010; Accepted 31 December 2010 Copyright © 2010 Jessica A. Mong et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Why most living organisms participate in sleep remains an While much is known about the mechanics of sleep, the enigmatic question. But in recent years, clinical and scientific investigation into sex differences and hormonal control of studies have raised the awareness of the importance of proper sleep and biological rhythms is in its infancy. Data from a sleep to overall health and quality of life. Quality sleep number of species including humans suggest that sex hor- is imperative for the maintenance of good health. People mones (estrogens, progestins, and androgens) influence the suffering from sleep disturbances are not only fatigued physiology and pathology of sleep and biological rhythms.