In many dorsolateral pontine neurons, auditory stimulation produces an initial excitation followed by a sustained inhibition. We now report that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation, for periods of from 22-48 h, reduced this auditory evoked inhibition of unit discharge. Inhibition returned to baseline levels after recovery REM sleep. Prior work indicates that the auditory evoked inhibition seen in noradrenergic cells in this region is partially mediated by norepinephrine. We hypothesize that the reduction in inhibition that we see is a consequence of either downregulation/desensitization of norepinephrine receptors or reduced norepinephrine release resulting from REM sleep deprivation.