title: Preventing sleep on the first resting phase following a traumatic event attenuates anxiety-related responses.
abstract: Sleep deprivation (SD) in the early aftermath of stress exposure at the onset of the inactive (resting)-phase, has been shown to ameliorate stress-related sequelae. We examined whether this effect is affected by the temporal proximity between SD and the stressful event or whether it was related to the prevention of sleep in the first resting phase following the exposure. Rats were exposed to stress at the onset of their active phase. Then, they were prevented from sleeping immediately thereafter [forced wakefulness (FW)], or during the first resting phase (SD). The behavior in the elevated plus-maze and acoustic startle response paradigms were assessed seven days post-exposure for retrospective classification into behavioral response groups. We found that resting phase SD (with or without FW) decreased PTSD-like phenotype, whereas immediate FW had no significant effect. The long-term anxiolytic effects of SD appear to stem from a diurnal cycle-dependent mechanism, such that preventing sleep during the first natural resting phase following the traumatic exposure is beneficial in preventing the traumatic sequelae.
authors: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Psychology, Beer Sheva, Israel; Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center, Anxiety and Stress Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
authors: Shlomi
authors: S
authors: Cohen
authors: Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center, Anxiety and Stress Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
authors: Zeev
authors: Z
authors: Kaplan
authors: Division of Psychiatry, The State of Israel Ministry of Health, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Sackler Medical School, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors: Joseph
authors: J
authors: Zohar
authors: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Psychology, Beer Sheva, Israel; Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center, Anxiety and Stress Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Electronic address: hagitc@bgu.ac.il.
authors: Hagit
authors: H
authors: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology*; D012890:Sleep; D012892:Sleep Deprivation; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000150:complications*; D014851:Wakefulness
keywords: Animal model; Forced wakefulness; Memory consolidation; Posttraumatic stress disorder; Sleep deprivation