Dualistic and inconsistent role of total and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation on depressive-like behaviors in rats: a systematic review

Salar Vaseghi; Nastaran Talaee; Atefeh Motamedi-Manesh; Batool Ghorbani Yekta; Hamed Moradi; Farnaz Hooshmand; Zahra Nikasa; Pegah Fouladpanjeh

doi:10.1007/s41105-025-00605-9

Dualistic and inconsistent role of total and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation on depressive-like behaviors in rats: a systematic review

Sleep Biol Rhythms. 2025 Aug 14;23(4):399-410. doi: 10.1007/s41105-025-00605-9. eCollection 2025 Oct.

Authors

Salar Vaseghi^{1

2}, Nastaran Talaee³, Atefeh Motamedi-Manesh², Batool Ghorbani Yekta^{4

5}, Hamed Moradi⁶, Farnaz Hooshmand², Zahra Nikasa², Pegah Fouladpanjeh²

Affiliations

¹ Medicinal Plants Research Center, Institute of Medicinal Plants, ACECR, P.O. Box 3365166571, Karaj, Iran.
² Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Medicinal Plants Research Center, Institute of Medicinal Plants, ACECR, Karaj, Iran.
³ Department of Psychology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Applied Biotechnology Research Center, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
⁶ Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences in Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Health, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

PMID: 40988906
PMCID: PMC12450853 (available on 2026-08-14)
DOI: 10.1007/s41105-025-00605-9

Abstract

Sleep deprivation (SD) has deleterious effects on cognitive functions and mood state. Evidence has shown that total and rapid-eye movement (REM) SD may lead to mood disturbances, anxiety, and depressive-like behaviors in rodents. However, there are inconsistent reports showing the potential antidepressant effects of SD. The present systematic review study aimed to review all previously published studies (indexed in PubMed) to assess the effects of total and REM SD on depressive-like behavior in rats, with respect to rat model, rat strain, age or weight, sex, SD model, SD duration, SD method, and depression test. At first, 184 studies were identified. After removal of duplications and unrelated studies, 37 studies were included in the present systematic review. The results showed a wide range of inconsistent effects of total and REM SD (especially REM SD) on depressive-like behavior in control and model rats. Increased depressive-like behavior was the most effect seen induced by total and REM SD in control rats. However, REM SD in pathological conditions showed a therapeutic role via decreasing depression, but total SD did not show this effect. We also showed that sex and depression test may alter the effect of REM SD on depressive-like behavior (evidence is limited). We suggested that future studies should use various depression tests and both sexes to better investigate the effects of SD on depression. We also showed that chronic REM SD leads to manic-like behaviors in females, although this effect has not been well investigated in males.

Keywords: Depressive-like behavior; Rapid-eye movement (REM); Rats; Sleep deprivation.

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Publication types

Review