REM sleep deprivation increases early morning pineal melatonin in castrated rats.

Recently nighttime melatonin levels have been shown to be attenuated in depressive patients or patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type. On the other hand, depression can be transiently relieved by deprivation of rapid eye movement sleep. Since exogenous melatonin administration increases rapid eye movement sleep and slow wave sleep in the rat, could rapid eye movement sleep deprivation then inversely influence endogenous melatonin production? We found indices that in castrated Wistar rats 4 days of rapid eye movement sleep deprivation by the cuff pedestal method elevates the pineal content of melatonin by a factor of two at 1 to 2 h after light onset. Rapid eye movement sleep is thus suggested to influence pineal activity. This mechanism might be involved in the human depression-alleviating effect of rapid eye movement sleep deprivation.