Pinellia ternata (Thunb.) Makino Preparation promotes sleep by increasing REM sleep

Pinellia ternata (Thunb.) Makino Preparation (PTP) is widely used to treat insomnia in traditional Chinese medicine; however, its specific role is not clear. In this study, PTP was prepared at three concentrations. For locomotor activity tests, mice were treated with PTP and evaluated for 14 days. For polygraph recordings, mice were treated for 14 days and recorded after treatment. The main chemical constituents in PTP were identified by Ultra performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS). The results showed that 0.9 g/mL PTP significantly reduced locomotor activity. The effect was related to the time of treatment. PTP reduced wakefulness and increased sleep in mice. Furthermore, PTP promoted sleep by increasing the number of REM sleep episodes with a duration of 64–128s and increasing the number of transitions from NREM sleep to REM sleep and from REM sleep to wakefulness. A total of 17 compounds were identified.