Sleep is probably a very normal activity that we still do every day, but scientists have a headache to solve the mysteries surrounding this normal activity.
Sleep is probably a very normal activity that we still do every day, but scientists have a headache to solve the mysteries surrounding this normal activity. There is no exact reason why we need so much sleep and sleep, the average person spends about a third of their life sleeping.
Not only are they studying sleep in humans, but scientists have also researched the sleep of many different organisms and found many other interesting things. There are animals that do not have the same sleeping habits, some lie down to sleep, some hang upside down on branches to sleep, others stand up to sleep. There are even species that go through a very long sleep to survive the winter, which we call the hibernating species.
There are animals that sleep a lot like bats, which sleep an average of 20 hours a day and are only active at night. During this time, giraffes only sleep about 30 minutes a day. And most mammals sleep more in the immature stage.
The sleep of animals is more mysterious than that of humans, there are species that can change the normal form of sleep under different conditions. As some migratory birds may sleep less or even stay awake while they search for a new place to live. Some other animals also have unihemispheric sleep, a very special form of sleep where only half of the brain is fully rested, while the other half still functions normally like whales and dolphins.
While higher animals need sleep, lower organisms do not have a clear concept of sleep because their brains simply do not need to rest, in these species there is only a decrease. physical activity like the rest of the body. Using a measure of fruit fly activity, they recorded periods of rest by reducing bodily functions. In an interesting experiment, they found that flies that were not rested reacted much more slowly to the search for food.
Fish is one of those organisms that hasn’t studied sleep much, due to difficult research conditions. Scientists believe that some species of fish that act in groups and often swim continuously will not sleep, while other fish that are only active may still sleep at night. However, the sleep of the fish is quite short and easily interrupted by the surrounding impacts in the aquatic environment. Some species of fish during the breeding season also deviate from their sleeping habits.
Reptiles are one of those creatures that “sleep like death”. Scientists found that the brain wave pattern in sleeping reptiles was very different from that in mammals, and their brain wave activity was minimized. When they fall into a deep sleep, it is very difficult to wake them up, especially large reptiles like Komodo dragons or crocodiles, the harder it is to wake them up.