Chronic social stress leads to altered sleep homeostasis in mice.

Disturbed sleep and altered sleep homeostasis are core features of many psychiatric disorders such as depression. Chronic uncontrollable stress is considered an important factor in the development of depression, but little is known on how chronic stress affects sleep regulation and sleep homeostasis. We therefore examined the effects of chronic social stress (CSS) on sleep regulation in mice.

Sleep/wake movement velocities, trajectories and micro-arousals during maturation in rats.

Background: Sleep is regulated by two main processes. The circadian process provides a 24-h rhythm and the homeostatic process reflects sleep pressure, which increases in the course of wakefulness and decreases during sleep. Both of these processes undergo major changes during development.

Sleep and Early Cortical Development.

Sleep is increasingly recognized as a key process in neurodevelopment. Animal data show that sleep is essential for the maturation of fundamental brain functions, and growing epidemiological findings indicate that children with early sleep disturbance suffer from later cognitive, attentional, and psychosocial problems. Still, major gaps exist in understanding processes underlying links between sleep and neurodevelopment.

Diurnal changes in electrocorticogram sleep slow-wave activity during development in rats.

According to the homeostatic regulation of sleep, sleep pressure accumulates during wakefulness, further increases during sleep deprivation and dissipates during subsequent sleep. Sleep pressure is electrophysiologically reflected by electroencephalogram slow-wave activity during non-rapid eye movement sleep, and is thought to be stable across time. During childhood and adolescence the brain undergoes massive reorganization processes.

The effects of caffeine on sleep and maturational markers in the rat.

Adolescence is a critical period for brain maturation during which a massive reorganization of cortical connectivity takes place. In humans, slow wave activity (<4.5 Hz) during NREM sleep was proposed to reflect cortical maturation which relies on use-dependent processes.