Objective The study is intended to examine changes in prefrontal cortex ATP concentrations over time in PCPA induced insomnia rats,and to examine the intervention effects of Suanzaoren decoction.Methods SD rats randomly assigned to normal control,control,model,SZRD control,SZRD treatment,5-HTP,and 5 HTP + SZRD groups.PCPA was injected intraperitoneally over three days to induce the insomnia model.One day after induction,at the fourth,fifth,sixth,eighth,and tenth days after experiment,subjects from each group were examined for prefrontal cortex ATP concentration using the HPLC method.Results Prefrontal cortex ATP concentrations in the PCPA Model group at the fourth,fifth,sixth,eighth,and tenth days were declined significantly compared with the Control group (P＜0.01).Compared with the PCPA Model group,the SZRD treatment group showed significant (P＜0.05) increase at the fourth,fifth,sixth,and eighth days after assay,and a significant increase (P＜ 0.01) on the tenth day.A comparison of the Control group with the Normal control group,and a comparison among the SZRD control group,the 5 HTP,and 5-HTP+SZRD groups showed no significant differences in prefrontal cortex ATP concentrations.Conclusion SZRD with 5 HTP itself has no significant effect on normal rats prefrontal cortex ATP levels,SZRD role of the prefrontal cortex appear to the ATP after PCPA caused insomnia.