Sleep Europe 2026 | Defining ‘local sleep’ and its implications for sleep deprivation and alertness

Vladyslav Vyazovskiy, PhD, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, discusses the concept of ‘local sleep’, in which sleep-like oscillations occur in discrete brain areas, rather than across the entire brain, in an activity-dependent manner. Prof. Vyazovskiy explains that this offers new insight into sleep deprivation, when parts of the brain may already be asleep, affecting mood, performance and alertness. He highlights that the field has moved from viewing sleep as a global, all-or-none phenomenon towards a local, dynamic process. This interview took place at Sleep Europe 2026 in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

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