Sleep
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In young adults, sleep is associated with important changes in cerebral connectivity during the first cycle of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Our study aimed to evaluate how electroencephalography (EEG) connectivity during sleep differs between young and older individuals, and across the sleep cycles. ⋯ Our results indicated that age modifies sleep EEG connectivity but the direction and the magnitude of these effects differ between sleep stages and cycles. Results in N3 and REM point to a reduced ability of the older brains to disconnect as compared to the younger ones. Our results also support the notion that cerebral functional connectivity during sleep may be associated with cognitive functions.
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Insomnia-related sleep disruption can contribute to impaired learning and memory. Treatment of insomnia should ideally improve the sleep profile while minimally affecting mnemonic function, yet many hypnotic drugs (e.g. benzodiazepines) are known to impair memory. Here, we used a rat model of insomnia to determine whether the novel hypnotic drug DORA-22, a dual orexin receptor antagonist, improves mild stress-induced insomnia with minimal effect on memory. ⋯ In the first hour of insomnia model exposure, DORA-22 promoted the number and average duration of NREM sleep spindles, which have been previously proposed to play a role in memory consolidation (all doses). Water maze measures revealed probe trial performance improvement for select doses of DORA-22, including increased time spent in the platform quadrant (10 and 30 mg/kg) and time spent in platform location and number of platform crossings (10 mg/kg only). In conclusion, DORA-22 treatment improved insomnia-related sleep disruption and memory consolidation deficits.