| Abstract: | Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors disturb the structure of the sleep-wake cycle and its ultradian rhythms by extending total slow-wave sleep, completely suppressing paradoxical sleep, and reducing total waking period considerably. Once the synchrony induced by MAO inhibitors has stopped, a rebound effect of increased waking occurs preceding and during partial restoral of paradoxical sleep. This fact is viewed as an indication of a waking requirement accumulating during the aforementioned partial deprivation under the effects of MAO inhibitors. Especially marked effects are exerted by MAO inhibitors on paradoxical sleep, in which they produce long-term suppression of tonic and phasic components. It is suggested that inhibition of paradoxical sleep is brought about by selective impairment of functional state of its neurophysiological trigger mechanisms.I. S. Beritashvili Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR, Tbilisi. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 20, No. 4, July–August, 1988, pp. 463–470. |
