A deep learning software tool for automated sleep staging in rats via single channel EEG

Poor quality and poor duration of sleep have been associated with cognitive decline, diseases, and disorders. Therefore, sleep studies are imperative to recapitulate phenotypes associated with poor sleep quality and uncover mechanisms contributing to psychopathology. Classification of sleep stages, vigilance state bout durations, and number of transitions amongst vigilance states serves as a proxy for evaluating sleep quality in preclinical studies. Currently, the gold standard for sleep staging is expert human inspection of polysomnography (PSG) obtained from preclinical rodent models and this approach is immensely time consuming. To accelerate the analysis, we developed a deep-learning-based software tool for automated sleep stage classification in rats. This study aimed to develop an automated method for classifying three sleep stages in rats (REM/paradoxical sleep, NREM/slow-wave sleep, and wakefulness) using a deep learning approach based on single-channel EEG data. Single-channel EEG data were acquired from 16 rats, each undergoing two 24 h recording sessions. The data were labeled by human experts in 10 s epochs corresponding to three stages: REM/paradoxical sleep, NREM/slow-wave sleep, and wakefulness. A deep neural network (DNN) model was designed and trained to classify these stages using the raw temporal data from the EEG. The DNN achieved strong performance in predicting the three sleep stages, with an average F1 score of 87.6% over a cross-validated test set. The algorithm was able to predict key parameters of sleep architecture, including total bout duration, average bout duration, and number of bouts, with significant accuracy. Our deep learning model effectively automates the classification of sleep stages using single-channel EEG data in rats, reducing the need for labor-intensive manual annotation. This tool enables high-throughput sleep studies and may accelerate research into sleep-related pathologies. Furthermore, we provide over 700 h of expert-scored sleep data, available for public use in future research studies.