Exercise-with-melatonin therapy improves sleep disorder and motor dysfunction in a rat model of ischemic stroke

This study investigates the effects of exercise combined with melatonin on stroke recovery in rats. Researchers found that this combined therapy improved sleep duration, delta power, and delta power rhythm in rats that had experienced a stroke. The therapy also improved motor skills such as coordination, endurance, and grip strength, along with enhancing learning and memory. These improvements were linked to increased activity in specific brain cells and changes in the expression of a glutamate receptor. Overall, the study suggests that exercise and melatonin together can help alleviate sleep disorders and motor dysfunction after a stroke by affecting brain plasticity and glutamate receptor expression.

• 1
  Exercise-with-melatonin therapy significantly prolonged sleep duration in the model rats, increased delta power values, and regularized delta power rhythm.
• 2
  Exercise-with-melatonin therapy improved coordination, endurance, and grip strength, as well as learning and memory abilities.
• 3
  It led to higher hippocampal CA1 neuron activity and postsynaptic density thickness and lower expression of glutamate receptor 2 than did exercise or melatonin therapy alone.