Table 3.

Comparison of discharge activity of sleep-active neurons in the parafacial zone, median preoptic nucleus, and ventrolateral preoptic area during waking to sleep transition

Neuronal group	Parafacial zone	Ventrolateral preoptic area	Median preoptic nucleus
Number of neurons	34	14	12
Discharge rate waking (s/s)	9.2 ± 0.6*,†	5.5 ± 0.9	3.4 ± 0.5
Discharge rate, last 10 s of waking (s/s)	9.9 ± 0.6*,†	6.4 ± 0.9	4.2 ± 0.7
%change compared to waking	10 ± 3	22 ± 7	20 ± 7
Discharge rate, sleep onset (s/s)	13.3 ± 0.7*,†	8.2 ± 1.0	5.4 ± 0.8
%change compared to last 10 s of waking	34 ± 4	35 ± 6	41 ± 11
Spike duration (ms)	1.23 ± 0.02*	1.38 ± 0.03	1.30 ± 0.05

Values are mean ± SEM.

*Compared to the ventrolateral preoptic area.

^†Compared to median preoptic nucleus.

**^,†† <0.01; *^,† < 0.05.