Adenosine Al Receptor Agonist GR79236 Suppresses Apnea During All Sleep Stages in the Rat

Anandamide Enhances Extracellular Levels of Adenosine and Induces Sleep: An In Vivo Microdialysis Study

“…Cannabinoid stimulation suppresses sleep apnea in rats, 39 and A 1 -receptor stimulation also has the same effect. 12 The endocannabinoid system also influences other neurotransmitter systems, [40][41][42] in particular, inhibiting the glutamatergic system. 43 It would be important to determine whether endogenous levels of specific neurotransmitter systems are changed as a result of AEA-induced activation of the CB 1 receptor.…”

“…11 Cannabinoid stimulation stabilizes respiration by potently suppressing sleep apnea in all sleep stages. 12 In humans, marijuana and ∆ 9 -THC increase stage 4, or deep, sleep. [13][14][15][16][17][18] The mechanism by which the cannabinoids induce sleep is not known, hampering the development of this drug for possible therapeutic use.…”

Sleep-disordered Respiration in Phenotypically Normotensive, Genetically Hypertensive Rats

“…This technique has been used by many investigators to reliably obtain chronic blood pressure recordings from rats for periods of months (cf. [22][23][24][25].…”

“…The amount of time spent in wakefulness (W), non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep were determined from the digitized data on 10-s epochs using software developed by Benington and coworkers (27), which we have previously employed in several investigations (14,(23)(24)(25)(28)(29)(30). This software discriminated wakefulness as a high-frequency low-amplitude EEG with a concomitant high EMG tone, NREM sleep by increased spindle and theta activity together with decreased EMG tone, and REM sleep by a low ratio of delta to theta activity and an absence of EMG tone.…”

“…As in previous investigations (14,(23)(24)(25)(28)(29)(30), sleep apneas, defined as cessations of respiratory effort for at least 2.5 s, were scored for each recording session and were associated with the stage in which they occurred: NREM or REM sleep. The duration requirement of 2.5 s represented at least two "missed" breaths, and was therefore analogous to a 10-s apnea duration requirement in humans.…”