Sleep: the effect of electroconvulsive shock in cats deprived of REM sleep.

Three cats were deprived of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep for 10 days, and three were deprived for 12 days. All cats received an electrically induced convulsion on each of the last 3 days of deprivation, as well as on the 1st recovery day just prior to sleep onset. As controls, four cats were deprived of REM sleep for 12 days and one was deprived for 10 days; the controls received no convulsions. Compensatory increases in REM sleep during recovery days were present in the convulsed animals, but were substantially lower than the recovery increases of control animals. During recovery REM sleep, convulsed cats did not display the exaggerated bursts of eye movements and body twitches seen in the nonconvulsed controls.