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Tsunematsu Lab
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A lab that uses mice to uncover why and how we dream.
AboutAbout the lab
Why do we sleep? Why do we dream?
The Tsunematsu Lab aims to clarify the mechanisms that regulate sleep and wakefulness, and the significance of sleep.
If we sleep eight hours a day, we spend a third of our lives asleep. Even so, there is still no answer to the fundamental questions of what sleep is for and why we dream.
The lab focuses on using mice to clarify why and how the fantastical dreams of REM sleep occur.
Launched in April 2023, this new lab uses methods such as large-scale extracellular recording, optical imaging, and optogenetics.
Key terms
- REM sleep
- The stage of sleep in which the eyes move rapidly and the brain is active. Most dreaming occurs during this stage.
- Astrocyte
- A type of non-neuronal brain cell (glial cell) with a star-like shape.
- Optogenetics
- A method in which targeted neurons are made to produce light-responsive proteins, so that their activity can be controlled by shining light on them.
NewsLab news
A master's student won an Excellence in Presentation Award at the Hokkaido Branch Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan
A paper was published showing that different types of amyloid affect sleep and brain waves differently
The book “Wakatte Inai Koto Zukan 1: Ikimono/Jintai” (An Illustrated Guide to What We Don't Yet Know, Vol. 1: Living Things and the Human Body) was published, with Associate Professor Tsunematsu contributing part of the explanations
A paper was published showing that astrocytes control sleep and wakefulness
ResearchResearch themes
Why do we sleep? Why do we dream? Why does sleep have both non-REM and REM stages? The lab tackles these fundamental questions using genetically modified mice. In particular, it wants to clarify the neural mechanisms of dreaming and the physiological role of dreaming.
*Illustrative imageAstrocytes and sleep
To understand the role sleep plays across the whole brain, the lab concluded that it needs to look not only at neurons but also at glial cells. Intracellular calcium in astrocytes was high during wakefulness, lower during non-REM sleep, and lowest during REM sleep, and this pattern was consistent across all brain regions examined.
*Illustrative imageDo PGO waves create dreams?
PGO waves, which arise in the brainstem and spread through the brain, had been thought for more than half a century not to exist in mice, but the lab succeeded in measuring them in mice for the first time in the world. The circuits through which PGO waves propagate closely resemble visual information processing circuits, and since the 1970s they have been hypothesized to be the brain waves that generate dreams in the brain.
MembersFaculty
The Tsunematsu Lab consists of faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, and technical assistants.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorTomomi Tsunematsu
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Hausmaus im Stroh” 3268zauber / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Astrocytes and sleep: “The Galaxy Within” Dchordpdx / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Do PGO waves create dreams?: “Moonlight over mountain - panoramio” Azwi / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (
行動神経生物学系 （竹内勇一） ): “Lepidiolamprologus nkambae LoroParqueTenerife cichlidae from nkambae IMG 5391” Bjoertvedt / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (Laboratory of Neurobiology TANAKA Lab
（田中研究室） ): “Drosophila melanogaster 53362116” Alexis / CC BY 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (小川宏人研究室
（システム神経生物学） ): “African.field.cricket.arp” Arpingstone / Public domain (cropped) - Related lab (和多研究室
（分子神経 行動学） ): “Zebra Finch, Sumba, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia 1” christoph_moning / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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