Alterations in cerebral metabolism from wakefulness to non-REM sleep

Sleep is fundamental to human health and function. Cerebral metabolism and blood supply are key physiological parameters of brain function, but the manner in which they change during different sleep stages is still largely unknown. In this study, we collected wakefulness and sleep data with concurrent EEG-MRI. We measured CBF, SvO2 and CMRO2 with radial OxFlow MRI. Our data show that CMRO2 is lower during non-REM sleep than during wakefulness and declines progressively as sleep stages become deeper. CBF decreases during non-REM sleep compared with wakefulness, while SvO2 gradually increases from wakefulness to slow wave sleep.