1 J Exp Clin Neurosci, 2017, 4(1): 1-4 Short Communicaton A Protocol for Conventional Sleep Deprivation Methods in Rats Javad Mahmoudi, Nahid Ahmadian*, Fereshteh Farajdokht, Alireza Majdi, Marjan Erfani Neurosciences Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran Introduction Modern life, its emergent technologies and industrialisation have changed the human society and his lifestyle. As an important consequence, modern life has worsened sleep quality and shortened its duration which ensue many medical problems [1-4]. Generally, normal daily patterns of many behaviours and physiological systems are regulated by sleep- wakefulness cycle, that any interruption in this cycle acts as a physiological stressor and metabolic challenge [5]. It impairs energy homoeostasis [6] as well as immune and hormonal functions. It also exacerbates generation of free radicals and infammatory markers. In this regard, it can be considered as a potential risk for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and infammatory diseases [6]. Apart from these problems, mental abilities are also largely affected by Sleep Deprivation (SD), where it contributes to psychiatric and neurologic complications such as declined alertness, vigilance and reaction time, low concentration, mood disorders and impaired motor abilities and anxiety [3, 7-10]. Reports show that adverse effects of inadequate sleep disturb well-being, productivity and safety that ultimately results in healthcare and economic burdens such as injury and death from the vehicle and workplace accidents [10,11]. Given the critical aspect of SD and its biologic effects, achieving valid models for resembling this state in animals is of a great importance. Till present, several techniques have been developed to model SD in animals. In all these methods, SD is induced by imposing external stimulation on animals. Notably, the majority of SD technics have been adopted from the Flower Pot (FP) technique which has been described originally and for the frst time by Jouvet et al. (1964) on the cat [12]. The basis for this method is habituation of animal to the situation, in which an animal being placed on an inverted FP is surrounded by water. This condition decreases the duration of sleep, without altering animal ability to obtain slow wave sleep. In this manner, animal gradually loses muscle tone and falls in the water until being awake [13-15]. Application of platform-based techniques has some advantages over the other methods. Briefy, platform techniques do not require any complex instruments and besides restriction of sleep are able to induce sleep fragmentation which happens as one of the sleep disorders symptoms [16]. So this paper aims to provide a guideline to better explain the techniques that with low cost and high translational applicability recapitulate SD in rats. Flower Pot Technique The conventional FP technique is widely used for selective Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep restriction in rodents [15,17]. This technique has been developed to selectivly restrict REM sleep. The following steps are used to induce SD in rat using FP method: 1. Transferring the rats to the SD induction unit for habituation to a new environment, 2 days before initiating the protocol. Correspondence Nahid Ahmadian, Neurosciences Research Center (NSRC), Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Golgasht St, Tabriz Iran, Tel: +98-41-33340730, Email: Ahmadiannahid@gmail.com Received: 2016-11-23 Accepted: 2017-01-26 DOI: 10.13183/jecns.v4i1.61 Abstract Several experimental methods have been developed to restrict the sleep in laboratory animals. Among them, the fowerpot and Modifed Multple Platorm (Modifed-MP) techniques are widely used largely due to their simplicity and low cost. However, beter applicaton of these techniques may need some technical points to be considered. Given this, the present guide besides focusing on the critcal points of these techniques gives a brief instructon for setng up and executng them. Keywords: Partal Sleep deprivaton, Flower pot technic, Modifed multple platorm technic, Rat ©2017 Swedish Science Pioneers, All rights reserved.