Sleep is not only an essential physiological function but also serves important roles in promoting growth, maturation, and overall health. There is increasing interest regarding the impact of sleep and its disorders on the regulation of inflammatory processes and end-organ morbidities, particularly in the context of neurocognitive, metabolic, and cardiovascular diseases and their complications. Furthermore, jet lag and other perturbations of the circadian clock have also been linked to the regulation of fundamental regulatory properties underlying metabolic homeostasis. Sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), a highly prevalent health problem across the age spectrum, are epidemiologically and mechanistically linked to metabolic deregulation. In the last decade, the emergence of increasing obesity rates has further led to remarkable increases in the prevalence of OSAS, along with more prominent neurocognitive, behavioral, cardiovascular, and metabolic morbidities.

Although the underlying mechanisms leading to OSAS-induced morbidities are likely multifactorial and remain to be fully elucidated, activation of inflammatory pathways by OSAS has emerged as an important pathophysiological component of the end-organ injury associated with this disorder. To this effect, it would appear that OSAS could be viewed as a chronic, low-grade inflammatory disorder. Furthermore, the concurrent presence of obesity and OSAS poses a theoretically increased risk of OSAS-related complications.

We invite submission of original research papers or structured and up-to-date comprehensive reviews. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The association and mechanisms linking sleep, experimental sleep manipulation, or sleep disorders and inflammatory processes and their downstream effects on end-organ injury and morbidity
• Original animal- or human-based investigative papers or state-of-the-art review papers examining the contribution of the circadian clock and its outputs on metabolism and immunity are sought

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mi/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/mi/isd/ according to the following timetable: