Sleep deprivation precipitates the development of amphetamine-induced conditioned place preference in rats

•2 conditionings with amphetamine did not induce conditioned place preference (CPP).•Sleep deprivation during conditioning trials precipitated amphetamine-induced CPP.•Sleep deprivation-induced potentiation of CPP was not dissipated across the session.•Lack of sleep contributes to the establishment of a drug-environment conditioning.•Our data suggest that sleep deprivation potentiates amphetamine reward. Sleep deprivation (SD) and amphetamine use are commonly associated conditions. SD shares similar neurobiological effects with psychostimulants, playing an important role in drug addiction, especially through conditioning manipulations. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of SD on the development of amphetamine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) in a protocol with a reduced number of conditioning sessions. Male adult Wistar rats were submitted to 4 conditioning sessions (2 sessions/day) in the CPP apparatus, half with saline (non-drug-paired compartment) and half with 2 mg/kg amphetamine (drug-paired compartment) after control (home-cage maintained) or SD (6 h gentle handling method) conditions. Control animals did not express a preference for the amphetamine-paired compartment, showing that 2 conditioning sessions with the drug were not sufficient to establish CPP. On the other hand, animals submitted to SD during the conditioning sessions expressed a preference for the amphetamine-paired compartment, which was maintained across the entire test session. SD precipitated the development of CPP to amphetamine, showing that lack of sleep can contribute to the establishment of a conditioning between the drug effect and environmental cues.