Analysis of muscular activity in neonatal animals to screen for mutations and/or drugs that alter sleep and wake states

A method of using neonatal rodent pups to identify adult rodent phenotypes, said method comprising:

• providing neonatal rodent pups and recording electromuscular activities in said rodent pups by electromyography;
• assigning a sleep-wake state to each said electromuscular activity, said sleep-wake state selected from the group consisting of active sleep, quiet sleep and wake;
• identifying an adult rodent phenotype in said neonatal rodent pup corresponding to at least one said assigned sleep-wake state;
• and
• confirming said phenotype with a subsequent test on adult rodents matured from said neonatal rodent pups.

A method of using sleep-wake states to characterize abnormal sleep phenotype in mammals, said method comprising:

• providing a population of control mammals and a population of test mammals, said test mammals having an abnormal sleep phenotype relative to said control mammals;
• collecting physiological electrographic data from each said population;
• assigning sleep-wake states to said collected electrographic data;
• comparing said assigned sleep-wake states of said test mammals with said assigned sleep-wake states of said control mammals;
• and
• identifying differences between each said assigned sleep-wake states characteristic of said test mammal abnormal sleep phenotype.