Prostaglandin D2, a cerebral sleep-inducing substance in rats.

We continuously monitored the circadian sleep patterns of unrestrained rats for more than 96 hr and infused various prostaglandins into their third ventricles for 10 hr to study the effects on inducing sleep. Prostaglandin D2 at 6 fmol/min had no effect on either slow wave sleep or paradoxical sleep. However, prostaglandin D2 at as little as 60 fmol/min caused a significant amount of excess slow wave sleep as compared with the control level during saline infusion. Paradoxical sleep was induced by prostaglandin D2 at doses greater than 600 fmol/min. Prostaglandin D2 (600 fmol/min) increased slow wave sleep by 33% and paradoxical sleep by 56%. Although prostaglandin F2 alpha (600 fmol/min) increased the amount of slow wave sleep, its activity was less than that of the same amount of prostaglandin D2. Prostaglandin E2 (600 fmol/min) had no effect on increasing the amounts of both slow wave sleep and paradoxical sleep. During the infusion of prostaglandin D2, rats were easily aroused by clap sound stimulation and their sleeping and waking postures remained normal. Further, their sleep was episodic, as observed in the physiological sleep of rats.