To determine stress levels, the researchers measured the levels of salivary cortisol, a stress hormone, in the study subjects.
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The researchers investigated the anxiety levels of the mice by measuring a stress hormone called corticosterone in their faeces.
But that bump came at a cost: increases in cortisol, a stress hormone, and a measure of inflammation called CRP, which can raise the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes.
While the science is in the early stages, one hypothesis suggests that by promoting feelings of safety and security, shared sleep in healthy relationships may lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.
People with Rett syndrome withdraw socially and recently scientists have found that up to 75% of patients are so anxious that a stress hormone called cortisol can be found in their urine.
Compared to controls, the rats also showed increased sensitivity to stress and produced more of a stress hormone, in a study published in May in a Public Library of Science journal, PLoS One.
At least for young girls, talking on the phone with their mothers reduces a key stress hormone and also releases oxytocin, a feel-good brain chemical that is believed to play a key role in forming bonds, the study found.
Earlier research suggests that circulating levels of a potent stress hormone, corticosterone, in the female before conception or egg laying is a dominant factor.
Other companies, such as Neurogen, Aventis and Neurocrine Biosciences, are in early tests of drugs that block a damaging stress hormone often elevated in depressed patients.
"There are special receptors on the fat cells deep inside the abdomen which are specifically intended to hook up with stress hormone -- and stress hormone stimulates them to accept fat, " said Peeke, a former senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health.
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The body's response to prolonged periods of stress is to secrete increasing amounts of cortisol, a hormone that marshals resources to cope with crises.
Observing 25 infants aged 4 to 10 months in a five-day inpatient sleep training program, researchers monitored levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the babies, who were left to cry themselves to sleep without being soothed.
So Dr Wildt's group is, for example, using a test-tube assay to measure hormone patterns in the faeces of endangered clouded leopards, and correlating these to behaviour under stress with a view to improving reproductive efficiency.
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