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Updated: Jan 7, 2026

Quantifying Infra-slow Dynamics of Spectral Power and Heart Rate in Sleeping Mice
Published on: August 2, 2017
Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals
Antoine Bergel1,2,3, Julien M Schmidt2,4,5, Baptiste Barrillot4
1Institute Physics for Medicine Paris, INSERM, CNRS, ESPCI Paris, PSL University, Paris, France.
None:
By recording brain activity in seven lizard species, humans, rats and pigeons, we demonstrate an infraslow brain rhythm during sleep in all species. This rhythm is tightly coupled with eye movements, muscle tone, heart and breathing rate in lizards, with skin brightness in chameleons and with pulsatile changes in cerebrovascular volume throughout sleep in bearded dragons and during non-rapid eye movement sleep in mice. These findings indicate that the infraslow rhythm is conserved across amniotes, questioning the evolution of sleep states.
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