The Effects of Selective Deprivation of States of Sleep in the Developing Monkey

Four groups, two comprising three neonatal rhesus monkeys and two comprising two juvenile rhesus monkeys, were selectively deprived of either low‐voltage, fast‐wave sleep (LVF) or of high‐voltage, slow‐wave sleep (HVS), respectively. Both infant and juvenile Ss displayed an over‐all increase in threshold to the tone‐shock combination during the deprivation of either phase of sleep. However, the thresholds of the infant Ss were greater, throughout deprivation, than the thresholds of the juvenile Ss. The juvenile Ss exposed to LVF deprivation were unique in exhibiting a sharp increase in frequency of forced awakenings from LVF, to values significantly greater than for the other groups, and in displaying compensatory recovery effects, manifested by increases in proportion of total sleep time spent in LVF, following termination of deprivation. Behavioral disturbances accompanying deprivation were not evident in any of the experimental groups. The study revealed a number of methodological problems related to the definition and to the selective deprivation of a particular state of sleep.