During sleep deprivation studies, a laboratory rat is housed in a water filled enclosure with a single small, dry platform (traditionally, an upside down flowerpot in a bucket of water, from which the technique is named) just above the water line (>1 cm).
In sleep deprivation studies, rats are placed in a water-filled container with a single, tiny, dry platform just above the water level (a traditional setup using an upside-down flowerpot in a bucket of water).