Sex Chromosomes Regulate Nighttime Sleep Propensity during Recovery from Sleep Loss in Mice

AbstractSleep is essential but incompatible with other behaviors, and thus sleep drive competes with other motivations. We previously showed Drosophila males balance sleep and courtship via octopaminergic neurons that act upstream of courtship-regulating P1 neurons (Machado et al., 2017). Here we show nutrition modulates the sleep-courtship balance and identify sleep-regulatory neurons downstream of P1 neurons. Yeast-deprived males exhibited attenuated female-induced nighttime sleep loss yet normal daytime courtship, which suggests male flies consider nutritional status in deciding whether the potential benefit of pursuing female partners outweighs the cost of losing sleep. Trans-synaptic tracing and calcium imaging identified dopaminergic neurons projecting to the protocerebral bridge (DA-PB) as postsynaptic partners of P1 neurons. Activation of DA-PB neurons led to reduced sleep in normally fed but not yeast-deprived males. Additional PB-projecting neurons regulated male sleep, suggesting several groups of PB-projecting neurons act downstream of P1 neurons to mediate nutritional modulation of the sleep-courtship balance.

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Effect of Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) on daytime and situational sleep propensity in novice practitioners: a prospective cohort study

Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine ◽

10.1515/jcim-2020-0172 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Kaustubh S. Chaudhari ◽

Saurabh S. Chaudhari ◽

Harshali B. Rankhambe ◽

Vinod Kochupillai ◽

Rakesh R. Tiwari

Keyword(s):

Prior Experience ◽

Controlled Study ◽

Clinical Correlation ◽

Polyvagal Theory ◽

Obese People ◽

Late Night ◽

Score Improvement ◽

Nighttime Sleep ◽

Prospective Controlled Study ◽

Sleep Propensity

AbstractObjectivesHectic, late-night lifestyle has reduced 90 min sleep in 20% adults resulting in insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). We assess the scope of Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY), a 4-component, breathing process in reducing EDS, generally and situationally.MethodsThis is a prospective, controlled study involving randomized subjects without any sleep-wake cycle anomalies and prior experience in SKY. Subjects (n=52) performed 30 min of SKY for 6 days/week for 8 weeks, while controls (n=53) performed sitting activity and Suryanamaskar for 4-weeks each. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was used to measure EDS at 0, 4, and 8 weeks.ResultsSKY group showed significant ESS score improvements between 0–4 weeks and 4–8 weeks of 1.22 (p=0.0001) and 1.66 (p=0.001) respectively. Controls however failed to improve with score differences of 0.02 (p=0.892) and 0.02 (p=0.8212) respectively. SKY group showed significant ESS score improvement over controls at 4-weeks (difference=1.74; p=0.013) and 8-weeks (difference eight; p=0.0001). Improvement was most for obese people and those sitting in a halted car.ConclusionsImprovement in subjects’ nighttime sleep and daytime wakefulness in SKY practitioners can be attributed to polyvagal theory. Increased heart rate variability (HRV) alterations and sympathetic hyperarousal in chronic insomnia; and cholinergic and GABAergic dysregulation in anxiety disorders are countered by regulated vagal nerve stimulation post SKY. Our study establishes effectivity of SKY in reducing EDS (total and situational), provides a clinical correlation for prior polysomnographic evidence and paves way for larger trials directed towards SKY prescriptions for insomnia.

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Sleep Deprivation alters the influence of biological sex on active-phase sleep behavior

10.1101/2020.02.21.958231 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

India Nichols ◽

Scott Vincent ◽

September Hesse ◽

J. Christopher Ehlen ◽

Allison Brager ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Sex Chromosomes ◽

Sex Chromosome ◽

Chromosome Complement ◽

Active Phase ◽

Sleep Loss ◽

Model Systems ◽

Poor Sleep ◽

Biological Sex ◽

Sleep Amount

AbstractPoor sleep is a hazard of daily life that oftentimes cannot be avoided. Gender differences in daily sleep and wake patterns are widely reported; however, it remains unclear how biological sex, which is comprised of genetic and endocrine components, directly influences sleep regulatory processes. In the majority of model systems studied thus far, sex differences in daily sleep amount are predominant during the active (wake) phase of the sleep-wake cycle. The pervasiveness of sex differences in sleep amount throughout phylogeny suggests a strong underlying genetic component. The goal of the current study is to determine if sex differences in active-phase sleep amount are dependent on sex chromosomes in mice.Sleep was examined in the four-core genotype (FCG) mouse model, whose sex chromosome complement (XY, XX) is independent of sex phenotype (male or female). In this line, sex phenotype is determined by the presence or absence of the Sry gene, which is dissociated from the Y chromosome. Polysomnographic sleep recordings were obtained from gonadectomized (GDX) FCG mice to examine spontaneous sleep states and the ability to recover from sleep loss. We report that during the active-phase, the presence of the Sry gene accounts for most sex differences during spontaneous sleep; however, during recovery from sleep loss, sex differences in sleep amount are partially driven by sex chromosome complement. These results suggest that genetic factors on the sex chromosomes encode the homeostatic response to sleep loss.

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Modulation of sleep-courtship balance by nutritional status in Drosophila

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.60853 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

José M Duhart ◽

Victoria Baccini ◽

Yanan Zhang ◽

Daniel R Machado ◽

Kyunghee Koh

Keyword(s):

Nutritional Status ◽

Calcium Imaging ◽

Dopaminergic Neurons ◽

Potential Benefit ◽

Sleep Loss ◽

Female Partners ◽

Sleep Drive ◽

Protocerebral Bridge ◽

The Cost ◽

Nighttime Sleep

Sleep is essential but incompatible with other behaviors, and thus sleep drive competes with other motivations. We previously showed Drosophila males balance sleep and courtship via octopaminergic neurons that act upstream of courtship-regulating P1 neurons (Machado et al., 2017). Here, we show nutrition modulates the sleep-courtship balance and identify sleep-regulatory neurons downstream of P1 neurons. Yeast-deprived males exhibited attenuated female-induced nighttime sleep loss yet normal daytime courtship, which suggests male flies consider nutritional status in deciding whether the potential benefit of pursuing female partners outweighs the cost of losing sleep. Trans-synaptic tracing and calcium imaging identified dopaminergic neurons projecting to the protocerebral bridge (DA-PB) as postsynaptic partners of P1 neurons. Activation of DA-PB neurons led to reduced sleep in normally fed but not yeast-deprived males. Additional PB-projecting neurons regulated male sleep, suggesting several groups of PB-projecting neurons act downstream of P1 neurons to mediate nutritional modulation of the sleep-courtship balance.

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