The Snappy Sleep Stager is a non-invasive, automated sleep cycle monitoring system based on mouse respiration, or breathing. Compared with other monitoring systems that require surgical implants or many hours of human intervention the Snappy Sleep Stager is simple to operate and allows more mice to be studied during one experiment.

The low cost and ease of use of the Snappy Sleep Stager allowed the researchers to accurately test a new mouse genetic modification system, the next-generation triple CRISPR method.

.By combining it with a new system for developing nearly perfect knock-out mice, researchers have identified a new short-sleeper gene, Nr3a. The scientists found that the Nr3a gene, is a member of the NMDA receptor family, a short-sleeper gene.

The NMDA receptor is associated with schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and depression, all of which are known to involve sleep disturbances. In addition to these disorders, sleep cycle disturbances are known to be associated with many health issues. 

http://www.riken.jp/en/pr/press/2016/20160108_1/