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Daily pattern of sleep, motor activity and feeding in the rat: Effects of regular and gradually extended photoperiods

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Summary

  1. 1.

    The vigilance states (waking, slow wave sleep (SWS) and paradoxical sleep (PS)), motor activity, food intake and water consumption were continuously recorded by telemetry in unrestrained rats. The animals were maintained for 2 days under 12-h light−12-h dark conditions (LD 12∶12). Subsequently, the photoperiod was gradually extended by 1 h/day from 12 to 20 h, and restored to the original length for the last 2 days. In one group of animals the extension of the photoperiod was obtained by phase-advancing light-onset (La-group), in the other by phase-delaying dark-onset (Dd-group).

  2. 2.

    During the LD 12∶12 control period, sleep, motor activity and food intake exhibited an asymmetric daily distribution. The percentages (Fig. 2) and episode durations (Fig. 4) of total sleep (TS) and slow wave sleep (SWS) were highest at the beginning of the light-phase and then exhibited a decreasing trend. The corresponding values for PS showed a slight increasing trend during the light-phase. A marked increasing trend during the light-phase was seen for PS expressed as the percentage of TS. Motor activity (Fig. 3) was minimal and food intake (Fig. 6) absent during the first half of the light-phase, increasing gradually during the second half. The daily minimum of sleep and the daily maximum of motor activity were situated at the end of the dark-phase.

  3. 3.

    During the extension of the photoperiod the daily period of high activity and waking was shortened and remained largely restricted to the dark-phase (Figs. 7–9). Motor activity and food intake were more restricted to the dark-phase in the La-group than in the Dd-group. Throughout the experiment, the percentage of PS relative to TS remained lower at the beginning of the light-phase than towards its end, whereas the values for TS and SWS tended to show an inverse relationship (Figs. 9–11). After restoration of the original LD 12∶12 condition, the altered daily patterns of sleep and motor activity tended to persist.

  4. 4.

    The daily pattern of sleep in the rat with the predominance of SWS in the early part of the rest period, and of PS in the late part, is strikingly similar to the distribution of sleep states in man. The difference in the daily rhythms of SWS and PS may reflect a phase-difference of two separate, and partly independent, circadian oscillators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pharmacology, University of Zürich, CH-8006, Zürich, Switzerland

    Alexander A. Borbély & Hans Ulrich Neuhaus

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  1. Alexander A. Borbély
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  2. Hans Ulrich Neuhaus
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The study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, grant nr. 3.624-0.75 and the Hartmann-Mueller Foundation for Medical Research. We thank Ms. Maiya Loepfe-Hinkkanen for valuable help with the experiments and data analysis, Ms. Margrit Donatz for typing, and Dr. J.P. Huston for comments on the manuscript.

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Borbély, A.A., Neuhaus, H.U. Daily pattern of sleep, motor activity and feeding in the rat: Effects of regular and gradually extended photoperiods. J. Comp. Physiol. 124, 1–14 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00656386

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