Sleep deprivation in pigeons and rats using motion detection

Forced sleep deprivation results in substantial behavioral and physiologic effects in mammals. The disk-over-water (DOW) method produces a syndrome characterized by increased energy expenditure and a robust preferentially rapid-eye-movement sleep rebound upon recovery or eventual death after several weeks of sleep deprivation. The DOW has been used successfully only in rats. This paper presents a method to enforce long-term controlled sleep deprivation across species and to compare its effects in rats and pigeons.

A conveyor was substituted for the DOW disk. Behavior rather than electroencephalography was used to trigger arousal stimuli, as in gentle-handling deprivation. Rats and pigeons were deprived using this apparatus, and the results were compared with each other and with published reports.

The physiologic consequences and recovery sleep in rats were like those published for DOW rats. Magnitude of sleep loss and recovery patterns in pigeons were similar to those seen in rats, but expected symptoms of the sleep deprivation syndrome were absent in pigeons. The use of a motion trigger allowed us to measure and, thus, to assess the quality and impact of the procedure.

Prolonged and controlled sleep deprivation can be enforced using automated motion detection and a conveyor-over-water system. Pigeons and rats, deprived of sleep to the same extent, showed similar patterns of recovery sleep, but pigeons did not exhibit the hyperphagia, weight loss, and debilitation seen in rats.