Chronic REM-sleep deprivation induced laryngopharyngeal reflux in rats: A preliminary study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of chronic REM-sleep deprivation with laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) and its mechanism.
Methods: Forty healthy male SD rats (body weight 250-280 g) were randomly divided into four groups. The first three ones were test group, which underwent REM-sleep deprivation with different duration of time by modified multiplatform water surface method. The last group was the control one having normal sleep. All the animals were performed Dx-pH monitoring when finishing sleep deprivation, and sacrificed to study the gastric residual rate (GRR) and small intestine peristalsis (SPR) rate by charcoal meal method.
Results: At prone position, the reflux incidence in the test groups fairly increased with the duration of sleep deprivation (p<0.05). The total number of reflux episodes at prone position in the test group rats with 3 months duration of sleep deprivation was significantly increased compared with that in the control ones (p<0.05). GRR in rats experiencing sleep deficiency for different duration all reduced significantly when compared to the control group (p<0.05). GRR and SPR presented continuous decline tendency with the duration of sleep deprivation (p>0.05).
Conclusions: It is suggested that chronic sleep deficiency could cause LPR in rats, which might result from the uncoordinated digestive tract motility caused by dysfunction of central nervous system after chronic REM-sleep deprivation. Our results implied that chronic REM-sleep deprivation might be one of the causes of LPR. Addressing sleep problems might help to decrease the prevalence of LPR and enhance its treatment efficacy.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)