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Recent research from Washington State University suggests a new paradigm in understanding sleep, demonstrating that a substance in the mesh-like walls of bacteria, known as peptidoglycan, is naturally present in the brains of mice and closely aligned with the sleep cycle. This view of sleep as arising from that holobiont condition" joins a growing body of evidence suggesting that our gut microbiomes play an important role in cognition, appetite, sex drive and other activity—a view that turns traditional brain-centric models of cognition upside-down and has implications for our understanding of evolution and free will, as well as the development of future treatments for sleep disorders. This work upends the traditional view of human neurology, suggesting that it is not completely top-down—i.e., the result of decision-making in the brain—but bottom-up—i.e., driven by the tiny organisms whose evolution shaped animals to serve as their hosts and whose needs influence the activities and cognition of their hosts. English's work expands upon known links between bacteria and sleep, including the fact that sleep patterns affect the function of the gut microbiome and that bacterial infections cause people to sleep more."