Microglial TNFα orchestrates protein phosphorylation in the cortex during the sleep period and controls homeostatic sleep.

Sleep intensity is adjusted by the length of previous awake time, and under tight homeostatic control by protein phosphorylation. Here, we establish microglia as a new cellular component of the sleep homeostasis circuit. Using quantitative phosphoproteomics of the mouse frontal cortex, we demonstrate that microglia-specific deletion of TNFα perturbs thousands of phosphorylation sites during the sleep period.