Sleep is a phenomenon conserved across the animal kingdom, where studies on Drosophila melanogaster have revealed that sleep phenotypes and molecular underpinnings are similar to those in mammals. However, little is known about sleep in blood-feeding arthropods, which have a critical role in public health as disease vectors. Specifically, sleep studies in mosquitoes are lacking despite considerable focus on how circadian processes, which have a central role in regulating sleep/wake cycles, impact activity, feeding, and immunity. Here, we review observations which suggest that sleep-like states likely occur in mosquitoes and discuss the potential role of sleep in relation to mosquito biology and their ability to function as disease vectors.

睡眠是整个动物界的一种保守现象，对黑腹果蝇的研究表明，睡眠表型和分子基础与哺乳动物相似。然而，人们对吸血节肢动物的睡眠知之甚少，这些节肢动物作为疾病媒介在公共卫生中起着至关重要的作用。具体而言，尽管相当关注昼夜节律过程，但蚊子的睡眠研究仍然缺乏，昼夜节律在调节睡眠/觉醒周期、影响活动、进食和免疫方面起着核心作用。在这里，我们回顾了表明蚊子可能会出现类似睡眠状态的观察结果，并讨论了睡眠在蚊子生物学及其作为疾病媒介的能力方面的潜在作用。