Sex differences in stress-induced sleep deficits.

This study examined sex differences in sleep measures prior to, during and after repeated restraint stress in adult male and female rats. Our data reveal that repeated stress increased time spent awake and decreased slow-wave sleep (SWS) and REM sleep (REMS) in females, and these effects persisted over 2 days of recovery. In contrast, the effects of stress on males were transient. These insomnia-like symptoms were accompanied by a greater number of exaggerated motor responses to waking from REMS in females, a phenotype similar to trauma-related nightmares. In sum, these data demonstrate that repeated stress produces disruptions in sleep that persist days after stress is terminated in female rats. These disruptions in sleep produced by 5 days of repeated restraint may be due to their lack of habituation. PMID: 33525935 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Stress - Category: Research Tags: Stress Source Type: research