“How can I sleep better?”
For many people, that is the first question that comes to mind when they think about sleep.
Yet to understand how sleep works,
it is also very important to know not only “how we fall asleep” but also “how we are able to stay awake.”
Both sides of the picture matter.
On September 9, 2026, Japanese sleep research that made a major contribution to uncovering this mechanism received the highest international recognition.
The honor went to Professor Masashi Yanagisawa of the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS) at the University of Tsukuba, who, together with Professor Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University, received the 2026 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
The Lasker Awards are among the most prestigious prizes in medicine and the life sciences, and according to the University of Tsukuba, Professor Yanagisawa is the eighth Japanese recipient of a Lasker Award.
What Is Orexin, the Discovery the World Recognized?
What earned the award such acclaim was the discovery of a brain substance called orexin, and the research on sleep and wakefulness that followed.
In 1998, Professor Yanagisawa and his colleagues reported orexin, a neuropeptide produced in the brain’s hypothalamus, along with two types of receptors that receive it.
When it was first discovered, attention focused on its connection to appetite and similar functions.
However, later research revealed an unexpected and important role.
Mice in which orexin no longer functioned showed symptoms resembling narcolepsy, such as suddenly falling asleep.
So what kind of condition is narcolepsy?
Narcolepsy is a type of hypersomnia marked by overwhelming daytime sleepiness, abnormalities in REM sleep and cataplexy, among other symptoms.
Besides sudden attacks of intense sleepiness, people may experience cataplexy, a sudden loss of muscle strength when laughing or being startled.
Unlike ordinary sleepiness from not getting enough sleep, it is a condition linked to the very mechanism that switches stably between sleep and wakefulness.
As research progressed, the deep connection between narcolepsy and orexin became clear.
In other words, orexin was not simply a substance related to appetite; it turned out to be essential for keeping us in a stable waking state.
Sleep Research That Focuses on Staying Awake?
This is what makes the research so fascinating.
When it comes to sleep,
“How can I get sleepy?”
“How can I sleep deeply?”
These are the angles we tend to think from.
But our brains don’t work simply on a mechanism of
being awake → getting tired → falling asleep
—it isn’t that straightforward.
The brain has several systems that regulate sleep and wakefulness, and among them, orexin plays an important role in keeping the waking state stable.
You could think of it as one of the pillars that hold up our waking state.
When this mechanism stops working properly, it becomes difficult to stay awake in a stable way.
In other words, to understand sleep,
we needed to understand not only “how we fall asleep” but also “how we stay awake.”
Separate Lines of Research Connected Through Orexin
Professor Emmanuel Mignot, who shares the award with Professor Yanagisawa, was approaching sleep research from a different direction.
While Professor Yanagisawa’s team discovered orexin itself and studied how it works, Professor Mignot’s team was studying dogs that develop narcolepsy.
Then, in 1999, it became clear that narcolepsy in dogs was linked to a genetic abnormality in orexin receptor 2.
Two completely separate lines of research had arrived at the same orexin system.
Later, in human narcolepsy as well, it was found that orexin levels in the cerebrospinal fluid were markedly reduced, among other findings, further strengthening the evidence linking orexin to the maintenance of wakefulness.
From Discovery to a New Kind of Sleep Medicine
What makes this research so remarkable is that it didn’t end with
“now we understand how sleep works.”
It went much further.
If orexin keeps us awake, then perhaps suppressing its action could make it easier to transition into sleep.
This idea gave rise to orexin receptor antagonists.
Today, they are actually used as treatments for insomnia.
In other words, the idea is
not to force sleep, but to weaken the mechanism that tries to keep us awake.
The discovery of orexin opened up a new approach to sleep medication.
The Lasker Foundation also highlights the development of a new type of insomnia treatment from orexin research as an important achievement behind this award.
Treatment for People Who Can’t Stay Awake, Too
Orexin research is also moving in the opposite direction.
For insomnia, medications that make it easier to sleep by suppressing the action of orexin, which maintains wakefulness, are already in practical use.
So what about the reverse: narcolepsy, in which a lack of orexin makes it difficult to stay awake?
This led to the idea:
“Could we stabilize the waking state by making up for orexin’s action?”
That is the approach researchers took.
In fact, orexin receptor agonists, which directly stimulate orexin receptors, are now being developed.
A leading example is oveporexton (TAK-861), being developed by Takeda Pharmaceutical.
Oveporexton is a drug that selectively stimulates the orexin 2 receptor (OX2R), one of the receptors orexin acts on.
In narcolepsy type 1, the nerve cells that produce orexin are lost, leaving the brain severely short of orexin.
So rather than replacing the lost orexin itself, the idea is to use a drug to directly stimulate the orexin 2 receptors that remain.
In July 2026, the U.S. FDA accepted the new drug application for oveporexton.
According to a University of Tsukuba announcement on September 9, 2026, the FDA’s decision is expected in the first quarter of 2027.
Seen from here, it becomes clear just how significant the 1998 discovery of orexin was.
For insomnia:
suppress the action of orexin
→ weaken wakefulness and make it easier to fall asleep
For narcolepsy, on the other hand:
stimulate orexin receptors
→ stabilize wakefulness
Two completely opposite approaches have become possible.
About 28 years have passed since the brain substance orexin was discovered in 1998.
What began as a basic research discovery is already in practical use as a treatment for insomnia, and is now leading to the development of new drugs that act on the underlying mechanism of narcolepsy itself.
This progression from basic research to treatment is also a key point in understanding this year’s Lasker Award.
About 30 Years Since the 1998 Discovery
Orexin was discovered in 1998.
About 30 years have passed since then.
The discovery of orexin
↓
Its connection to narcolepsy
↓
Uncovering how sleep and wakefulness work
↓
Application to insomnia treatment
↓
Development of new drugs for narcolepsy
That is how the research has grown from basic science into real-world medicine.
This year’s Lasker Award recognizes those many years of research on the world stage.
The Lasker Foundation’s award ceremony is scheduled to take place in New York on September 17, 2026.
There Is Still Much We Don’t Know About Something as Ordinary as Sleep
Every day, we fall asleep and wake up as if it were nothing special.
Yet
why do we sleep?
Why are we able to stay awake?
How does the brain switch between sleep and wakefulness?
Not all of these questions have been fully answered.
This Lasker Award is news that reminds us once again that sleep is not merely “time to rest the body,” but an important biological phenomenon that researchers around the world are still working to unravel.
Here at La HEAD, we have shared a wide range of sleep research, covering not only sleep duration but also light, body temperature, diet, exercise, breathing and more.
This time, the topic goes even deeper: how the brain itself controls sleep and wakefulness.
Behind something as familiar as sleep lies a surprisingly deep science.
La HEAD will continue to share new research and news that offer a chance to think about sleep and rest, explained as clearly as possible.
References
• Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, “Orexin: A brain peptide that maintains wakefulness”
• University of Tsukuba, “Professor Masashi Yanagisawa Receives the 2026 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award” (in Japanese)