Abstract Patients with epilepsy report that sleep deprivation is a common trigger for breakthrough seizures. The basic mechanism of this phenomenon is unknown. In the Kv1.1 -/- mouse model of epilepsy, daily sleep deprivation indeed exacerbated seizures though these effects were lost after the 3 rd day. Sleep deprivation also accelerated mortality in ~52% of Kv1.1 -/- mice, not observed in controls. Voltage-clamp experiments on the day after recovery from sleep deprivation showed reductions in GABAergic tonic inhibition in dentate granule cells both in Kv1.1 -/- and wild-type mice. Our results suggest that sleep deprivation is detrimental to seizures and survival, possibly due to reductions in GABAergic tonic inhibition.

Sleep deprivation exacerbates seizures and diminishes GABAergic tonic inhibition