In a study with rats, researchers found that enhancing sleep after a head injury may help prevent some damage to brain cells, reports Medical Xpress.
The researchers led by Daniela Noain and Christian Baumann investigated whether enhancing slow-wave sleep after a head injury could mitigate axonal injury in rats. Twenty-five rats received a blow to the prefrontal cortex, a brain area associated with decision-making and self-control. One-third of the injured rats were sleep-deprived for short periods of time as previous studies indicate, for a brief period of time afterward, sleep deprivation enhances slow-wave sleep. Another group was treated with sodium oxybate, a drug used to induce a slow-wave sleep-like state in narcolepsy patients. A third group received placebo.
One day after injury and continuing for the next five, researchers modulated the animals’ sleep. Employing electroencephalography (EEG) recordings during treatment, they confirmed that the animals experienced slow-wave sleep enhancement as a result of treatment. Afterward, the rats took a memory test, and the team examined their brains for axonal damage, focusing on areas involved in learning and memory, including the hippocampus.
