Background: Sleep is a universal circadian biological rhythm which is seen among all vertebrate and has two separate steps including REM and Non-REM. Total or partial sleep deprivation would lead to cognitive dysfunction. It seems that the cognitive dysfunction following sleep deprivation is resulted from cellular changes in certain area involved in this phenomenon. Regarding the role of hippocampus in cognitive dysfunction and behavior and also the continuation of neurogenesis in this area, the present research was designed to study the effects of short-term sleep deprivation on neurogenesis in hippocampus and memory of adult male rats.

Methods: Twenty four Wistar adult male rats were used in this study. The animals randomly divided into three groups of trials and control. Flower pot technique was used for REM-SD. To study spatial memory Morris Water Maze was used. In order to evaluate neurogenesis Brdu immunohistochemistry was used. Data were analyzed using SPSS and the results presented in the form of Mean± SD, the p < 0.05 considered as significant.

Results: Short-term REM-SD led to significant decrease of neurogenesis in hippocampus of trial groups comparing control group. We showed that REM-SD significantly affected some certain parameters of memory in REM-SD.