(A and B) Daily sleep profiles of males under a 12-hour light/dark (white and black bars) cycle in 30-minute intervals for 72 hours for the first (baseline), second (deprivation–flies were subjected to mechanical sleep deprivation for the final 6 hours during night), and third (recovery) days in controls (elav>+, nowl-RNAi/+, and Nf1-RNAi/+) and animals with neuronal knockdown of nowl or Nf1 (elav>nowl-RNAi and elav>Nf1-RNAi). Pink indicates sleep deprivation, while blue indicates recovery periods. (C) Quantification of recovery sleep (excess sleep) during the first 3 hours following sleep deprivation compared to the same period the first baseline day, shows rebound sleep for controls and animals with neuronal knockdown of nowl and Nf1. No significant differences were observed between genotypes. (D) Average duration of sleep-bouts initiated within the first 2 hours of the light phase was increased on the recovery day immediately following sleep deprivation compared to the first baseline day to a greater extent in controls than in animals with neuronal knockdown of nowl or Nf1. Filled bars represent the baseline day, and hollow bars represent the recovery day. Graphs represent means with SEM (n = 23–32) of data from one experiment. Significance was determined using Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn's post-hoc testing (*p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001).