Acquisition impairments following rapid eye movement sleep deprivation in rats

Rats were deprived of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep for up to five days by confinement to a small platform surrounded by water. Acquisition of three tasks—passive avoidance, active avoidance, and an appetitive alternation discrimination—was slower following REM sleep deprivation than after normal (home cage) or stress control (immersed in cold water) treatments. Sleep loss controls, who had reduced non-REM sleep, performed as well as normals and better than the REM sleep deprived rats on the two shock avoidance tasks—the alternation test was not employed. Thus, five days of REM sleep deprivation in the rat produced marked acquisition deficits which were not task specific and which did not appear to be due to nonspecific stress, non-REM sleep loss, or changes in activity levels.