The
sleep homeostatic response significantly
affects the
state of
anesthesia. In addition,
sleep recovery may occur during
anesthesia, either via a natural
sleep-like process to occur or via a direct restorative effect. Little is known about the effects of
isoflurane anesthesia on
sleep homeostasis. We investigated whether 1)
isoflurane anesthesia could provide a
sleep-like process, and 2) the depth of
anesthesia could differently
affect the post-
anesthesia sleep response. Nine
rats were treated for 2 hours with ad libitum
sleep (Control),
sleep deprivation (SD), and
isoflurane anesthesia with
delta-
wave-predominant
state (ISO-1) or burst
suppression pattern-predominant
state (ISO-2) with at least a 1-week interval.
Electroencephalogram and
electromyogram were recorded and
sleep-wake
architecture was evaluated for 4 hours after each
treatment. In the post-
treatment period, the duration of transition to slow-
wave-
sleep decreased but
slow wave sleep (SWS) increased in the SD group, but no
sleep stages were significantly changed in ISO-1 and ISO-2 groups compared to Control. Different levels of
anesthesia did not significantly
affect the post-
anesthesia sleep responses, but the deep level of
anesthesia significantly delayed the latency to
sleep compared to Control. The present results indicate that a natural
sleep-like process likely occurs during
isoflurane anesthesia and that the post-
anesthesia sleep response occurs irrespective to the level of
anesthesia.