Immature sleep pattern in newborn rats when dams encountered sleep restriction during pregnancy

Abstract

There is a growing realization that proper sleep during pregnancy is essential for the health of the mother and the offspring. However, there are no reports on the effects of maternal sleep restriction on the sleep-wake profiles of newborns. So, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of sleep restriction during the third term of pregnancy on the sleep-wake profiles of neonates born to them. The female pregnant Wistar rats were sleep restricted for 5 h/day on gestational days 15-20 by gentle handling. Sleep-wake profiles of the pups born to them and to the control rats were recorded on postnatal days 1-21. Pups of sleep restricted dams had higher active sleep (AS) and lower quiet sleep (QS) as well as wakefulness. Higher ratio of AS to QS, longer duration of sleep cycles, lesser bout frequency and reduced EEG delta power were also observed in these pups, all of which indicated brain immaturity. All these signs of delayed maturation, usually found in premature babies, were observed in the pups of sleep restricted mothers, who had longer gestation period. This report not only shows the importance of sleep during pregnancy, but it also suggests that neonatal sleep monitoring can be used as a tool for early assessment of retarded brain development.

A Novel Continuously Recording Approach for Unraveling Ontogenetic Development of Sleep-Wake Cycle in Rats

“…The feeding problem in the pup prior to weaning limits early sleep recording to only one or several hours a day. In the previous studies, formula milk was administered orally by syringe before sleep recording (2, 3, 17, 18, 20). The milk-feeding system used in our study was set up with a computer-assisted infusion pump and a conterminous PE tube connected to feeding catheter inserted into one side of oral cavity, and delivered milk once an hour (Figure 2).…”

“…In recent studies, the sleep-wake states in rat pups are identified by combining visual observation with measurements of muscle activity and EEG recordings (2, 17–20). However, most of these studies observed and recorded intermittently, which means they cannot get 24 h continuous recordings, and cannot elaborated the dramatic changes and circadian development during the whole day in early life.…”

Effects of sleep modulation during pregnancy in the mother and offspring: Evidences from preclinical research

“…However, studies have not been consistent regarding the impact of circadian alterations and more data are needed to enable any robust conclusion. Gulia, 2018aGulia, , 2018b. In these studies, sleep restriction during preg- These investigators have already reported that REM and total sleep loss during late pregnancy lead the offspring to display distinct phenotypic traits of depression and hyperactivity, respectively (Gulia, Patel, & Kumar, 2015;Gulia et al, 2014;Radhakrishnan et al, 2015).…”

“…However, the potential effects of maternal sleep restriction during pregnancy on foetal neurodevelopment have been scarcely explored. The group of Gulia and Kumar has shed light on this relationship, by means of rodent studies evaluating the effects of experimental sleep restriction during pregnancy on the brain development of offspring (Aswathy, Kumar, & Gulia, 2018a, 2018b). In these studies, sleep restriction during pregnancy was achieved by two different methods: REM sleep (platform method, 22 hr/day) and total sleep (gentle handling, 5 hr/day) during the last third of the pregnancy (gestational days, 15–20).…”

Acute sleep deprivation during pregnancy in rats: Rapid elevation of placental and fetal inflammation and kynurenic acid

“…Sleep loss during embryogenesis is a risk factor for pregnancy loss (Calegare et al, 2010), poor fetal growth and preterm delivery (Chang et al, 2010;Okun et al, 2011;Palagini et al, 2014). Lasting negative impacts of SD during pregnancy, investigated in the developing offspring, include greater amounts of active sleep and less quiet sleep compared to controls, indicative of immature brain development (Aswathy et al, 2018), and increased ultrasonic vocalizations (Gulia et al, 2015), indicative of higher sensitivity to maternal separation. As pre-adolescents, offspring display increased risk-taking behavior (Gulia et al, 2015;Radhakrishnan et al, 2015) and deficits in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory (Zhao et al, 2014(Zhao et al, , 2015.…”