TY - JOUR
T1 - Association of salivary-Assessed oxytocin and cortisol levels with time of night and sleep stage
AU - Blagrove, Mark
AU - Fouquet, Nathalie C.
AU - Baird, Alison L.
AU - Pace-Schott, Edward F.
AU - Davies, Anna C.
AU - Neuschaffer, Jennifer L.
AU - Henley-Einion, Josephine A.
AU - Weidemann, Christoph T.
AU - Thome, Johannes
AU - McNamara, Patrick
AU - Turnbull, Oliver H.
N1 - Funding Information:
Study was funded by the Wales Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience.
PY - 2012/10
Y1 - 2012/10
N2 - There have been proposals for REM to have a function of emotional memory consolidation, and also for REM sleep to be involved in the promotion of attachment behaviour. The hormones cortisol and oxytocin, respectively, may be involved in these proposed REM sleep functions. However, there are conflicting reports on whether levels of cortisol differ between sleep stages when time since sleep onset (SSO) is controlled, and virtually no literature on whether levels of oxytocin differ between sleep stages. This study thus investigated the changes in levels of oxytocin (OT) and cortisol (CT) across the night, and whether these levels differ between REM and N2 sleep when time SSO is controlled. 20 participants (10 males, 10 females, mean age = 20.45, SD = 2.01) were awakened 10 min into REM and N2 sleep periods in the sleep laboratory and gave saliva samples which were assayed for OT and CT. Levels of OT were relatively constant across the night, whereas CT increased significantly. REM and N2 did not differ significantly neither for OT nor for CT. The study has implications for models of sleep-dependent memory consolidation that incorporate the late sleep increase in cortisol as a functional component of memory consolidation, and also for the medical diagnostic assaying of OT during sleep.
AB - There have been proposals for REM to have a function of emotional memory consolidation, and also for REM sleep to be involved in the promotion of attachment behaviour. The hormones cortisol and oxytocin, respectively, may be involved in these proposed REM sleep functions. However, there are conflicting reports on whether levels of cortisol differ between sleep stages when time since sleep onset (SSO) is controlled, and virtually no literature on whether levels of oxytocin differ between sleep stages. This study thus investigated the changes in levels of oxytocin (OT) and cortisol (CT) across the night, and whether these levels differ between REM and N2 sleep when time SSO is controlled. 20 participants (10 males, 10 females, mean age = 20.45, SD = 2.01) were awakened 10 min into REM and N2 sleep periods in the sleep laboratory and gave saliva samples which were assayed for OT and CT. Levels of OT were relatively constant across the night, whereas CT increased significantly. REM and N2 did not differ significantly neither for OT nor for CT. The study has implications for models of sleep-dependent memory consolidation that incorporate the late sleep increase in cortisol as a functional component of memory consolidation, and also for the medical diagnostic assaying of OT during sleep.
KW - Behavioural attachment
KW - Cortisol
KW - Emotional attachment
KW - Memory consolidation
KW - N2 sleep
KW - Oxytocin
KW - REM sleep
KW - Sleep
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84867335572
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84867335572&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00702-012-0880-1
DO - 10.1007/s00702-012-0880-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 22911329
AN - SCOPUS:84867335572
SN - 0300-9564
VL - 119
SP - 1223
EP - 1232
JO - Journal of Neural Transmission
JF - Journal of Neural Transmission
IS - 10
ER -