Homeostatic factors

Rimm, E. B. (2000). Moderate alcohol intake and lower risk of coronary heart disease Meta-analysis of effects on lipids and homeostatic factors. Journal of the American Medical Association, 319, 152.3-1528. 

These studies are consistent with the concept of POA control of homeostasis, but are not definitive. A definitive study demonstrating the necessity of the POA for homeostatic control of sleep using the lesion method would be difficult to interpret since baseline sleep would be greatly diminished. Instead, recent studies have examined the role of the POA in response to endogenous sleep factors thought to underlie sleep homeostasis. 

Despite theoretical and experimental indications that adenosine has hypno-genic effects, it was necessary, in order to postulate adenosine as a homeostatic sleep factor, to show that its concentration in vivo depends on previous wakefulness and sleep, and to explain the mechanism of its hypnogenic effect. 

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