Blood pressure regulation after deprivation of rapid-eye-movement sleep in rats.

We have shown previously that both sino-aortic denervation and high-renin hypertension in the rat produce a pronounced alteration in the pattern of blood pressure change during sleep; namely from unchanged to an increase in pressure during synchronized sleep, and from a slight increase to a marked decrease during desynchronized sleep. Since rapid-eye-movement sleep deprivation alters the pattern of sleep, we investigated the pattern of arterial pressure changes during sleep in rats submitted to a 48-h period of rapid-eye-movement sleep deprivation (platform technique). The deprived rats showed an increase in the number and length of desynchronized sleep episodes. Unexpectedly, they showed a blood pressure pattern change during synchronized and desynchronized sleep similar to that previously observed in sino-aortic denervated rats and in rats with high-renin hypertension: an increase in arterial pressure during synchronized sleep (+3.16 +/- 0.4 versus +0.65 +/- 0.65 mmHg in controls) and a decrease during desynchronized sleep (-6.24 +/- 0.5 versus +4.22 +/- 0.4 mmHg). These data suggest that deprivation of rapid-eye-movement sleep impairs the baroreceptor reflex function during sleep in rats.