Inside the Simplest Sleeping Brain

Can a brain with only 302 neurons still experience something as complex as sleep?

Meet the nematode worm, C. elegans. Despite having a

tiny nervous system, these worms enter a sleep-like state called lethargus,. What makes them

so valuable to science is that we have mapped their entire "connectome"—meaning we know every single

connection between every single neuron in their body. By studying these worms,

researchers can see exactly how a brain "gates" sensory information, effectively blocking

out the world to protect the continuity of sleep. It’s the simplest model we have to

understand the literal "wiring" of a drifting mind. Peek inside the world’s simplest