Paper Title
Assessment of Sleep and Wakefullness Pattern in an Animal Model of Early-Life Sleep Deprivation

Abstract
Male Sprague-Dawley rats were sleep deprived 6-8 hours/day for 14 days starting at postnatal day (PND) 19 until PND32. Control (CON) rats were gently handled. This developmental stage in rat mimics human late childhood and early adolescent period. An automated sleep deprivation (SD)apparatus was used to disrupt the rats sleep. To estimate the effectiveness of SD method, sleep/wakefulness phenotypes were quantitatively examined in rats during and after SD hours via measurement of immobility bouts using non-invasive video recording method. Immobility for ≥45s was estimated as a sleeping phenotype. Urine samples were collected right after SD hours for corticosterone measurement. This method of SD effectively restricted sleep in rats, as SD rats stayed awake during sleep deprivation hours whileCON rats showed sleeping phenotype. Urine corticosterone levels in SD and CON rats were comparable, suggesting the absence of physiological stress in this method of sleep deprivation. Keywords - Sleep Deprivation, Sleep/Wakefulness Pattern, Animal Model, Corticosterone