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Updated: Jan 15, 2026
Establishing a Device for Sleep Deprivation in Mice
Published on: September 22, 2023
Acute Sleep Deprivation Suppresses Sleep Spindles in Mice
Yan Xu1, Miaoqin Tan1, Dongcai Li2
1Department of Psychiatry, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Introduction:
Sleep spindles and cortical coherence are key electrophysiological signatures of thalamocortical communication and large-scale neural synchrony during non-REM sleep. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of acute 12-hour sleep deprivation on spindle dynamics and cortical coherence across frequency bands in mice.
Methods:
Sixteen adult male C57BL/6J (8 per group) mice were randomly assigned to either a natural sleep (NS) or sleep deprivation (SD) group. We recorded bilateral frontal EEGs continuously for 12 hours following intervention. Sleep spindles (8-16 Hz) were automatically detected, and interhemispheric coherence from delta to gamma bands was computed using Welch's method.
Results:
Compared to NS mice, SD mice showed a significant reduction in frontal spindle count (61 ± 14 vs 103 ± 12 spindles; mean ± SEM; p = 0.027) and amplitude (47 ± 6 µV vs 68 ± 5 µV; p = 0.002). Delta (0.5-4 Hz) and theta (4-8 Hz) interhemispheric coherence showed non-significant decreasing trends in SD mice (p > 0.05), whereas alpha (8-13 Hz), beta (13-30 Hz), and gamma (30-40 Hz) coherence did not differ.
Conclusion:
Acute sleep deprivation significantly impairs spindle generation. It also resulted in a trend toward reduced low-frequency cortical coherence, though this change was not statistically significant.
