The lateral hypothalamus produces the neuropeptides orexin-A and -B, also referred to as hypocretin-1 and -2, which activate the OX1 and OX2 receptors. The orexin system is linked to various neurobiological processes and specifically plays a critical role in regulating the sleep-wake cycle. Epilepsy, as a frequent neurological disease, affects people of all ages. Given that epilepsy can impact sleep in multiple ways, the relationship between the orexinergic system and the pathophysiology of generalized epilepsies remains to be determined.We investigated the orexin-type 2 receptor (OX2R) in the cortex and hippocampus of genetic absence epilepsy rats from Strasbourg (GAERS), a well-established model for idiopathic generalized epilepsy. It expresses spike-and-wave discharges that resembles human absence seizures. The cortex and thalamus tissues of male adult GAERS (3 months old) and age-matched non-epileptic Wistar rats were dissected, and then tissue lysates were used for western blot analysis to demonstrate the level of OX2 receptor protein. The OX2R protein expression levels in both tissues of GAERS were significantly lower than in non-epileptic Wistar rats. This result demonstrates OX2R levels in the GAERS animal for the first time. Thereby, our findings suggest that the orexinergic system might have an important role in the absence epilepsy and might represent an appropriate therapeutic target.This study is supported by GEMSTONE project from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the grant agreement number 1010789881.