Bizarre and Curious Facts about Sleep
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A plethora of scientific studies over sleep have been the subject of intense research, but there are still elements of the function that all humans and mammals can’t do without which still baffle researchers. Blind people can still see images in their dreams, men dream about other men 70% of the time, and the percentage of those who dream in black and white dropped down to 12% after the advent of color TV.
Sleeping baby gray squirrel. Photo Audrey
While there will be plenty of time for sleep when we die, the truth of the matter is that one would die of sleep deprivation long before food deprivation — merely 10 days without sleep can kill you.
Be it a friend, loved one, the fleeting moments of briefly meeting someone, or the passing by of a stranger, we can only dream of faces that we have already seen.
One typically forgets 50% of a dream within 5 minutes after waking, which increases to 90% within just 10 minutes of wakefulness.
Sleep and Culture
In some societies, people generally sleep with at least one other person — and sometimes many — or with animals. In other cultures, people rarely sleep with anyone but a most intimate relation, such as a spouse.
Sleeping mates. Photo Scot Campbell
Photo Littermates. Bev Sykes
Photo Florencetime
In almost all societies, sleeping partners are strongly regulated by social standards. One might only sleep with their immediate family, extended family, spouses, their children, children of a certain age, children of specific gender, peers of a certain gender, friends, peers of equal social rank, or with no one at all.
Sleep Duration Genes
Sleep duration is affected by the gene DEC2. Some people have a mutation of this gene and sleep 2 hours less than normal. Neurology professor Ying-Hui Fu and her colleagues bred mice that carried the DEC2 mutation and slept less than normal mice.
It’s suspected that a considerable amount of sleep-related behavior, such as when and how long a person needs to sleep is regulated by our genetics.
Sleeping lop-ear rabbit. Photo Jannes Pockele
Sleeping lovebird. Photo Steffen
Photo Chris Willis
A University of California, San Diego psychiatry study of more than one million adults found that people who live the longest self-report sleeping for 6 to 7 hours every night. Another study of sleep duration and mortality risk in women showed similar results.
Other studies show that “sleeping more than 7 to 8 hours a day has been consistently associated with increased mortality,” though this study suggests the cause is probably other factors such as depression and socioeconomic status, which would correlate statistically. It’s been suggested that the correlation between lower sleep hours and reduced morbidity only occurs with those who wake after less sleep naturally, rather than those who use an alarm.
Sleep and Animals
Horses and other hoofed animals can sleep while standing, but must lie down for REM sleep — which causes muscular atony — for short periods.
Photo Umberto Salvagnin
Panthera Pardus leopard asleep. Photo Jacques S G
Pet cheetah sleeping. Photo Ghanim Al-Mansoori
Giraffes only need to lie down for REM sleep for a few minutes at a time, and only sleep up to 2 hours a day for as little as 10 minute durations.
Some aquatic mammals such as dolphins and some birds can sleep with one half of the brain while the other half is awake, a so-called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.
Many mammals sleep for a large proportion of a day when they’re very young, but killer whales and some dolphins don’t sleep during the first month of life. These differences may be explained by the ability of land-mammal newborns to be easily protected by parents while sleeping, while marine animals must — even while very young — be more continuously vigilant for predators.
Urban Fox asleep. Photo Limbo Poet
Sleeping sea otter. Photo Linda Tanner
Sea lion sleeping. Photo Chris Willis
Sources: Online MBA and Wikipedia
Tags:animals bizarre dreams infographic science sleep
that baby squirrel has some very big feet.
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This blog is great! I learned a lot about dreaming!
it’s lovely :X
im glad, that 7-8 hours sleep can make us long age/live.
I have a question. How is it sometimes, when i dream, i know that i’m in a dream. However, When I realized this, It just a matter of 1-2 minutes before I woke up. Sometime I can even try to make it last longer. Any explanation?
interesting and cute post!
Hello, this is a very informative post, thanks to which I’ve now learned much more about sleeping. Also I have to say these animal photos are so cute, thank you!
Those are pretty cute picture! That little squirrels foot is the size of his head! (almost)
Also, I didn’t know you’d die of lack of sleep before you died of lack of food. What an interesting concept…. I LOVE SLEEP!
Some great facts and great photos!
Do men really dream about other men that much?
And I sleep on a back, having combined hands on a breast as a corpse and of it constantly I frighten relatives
What i find in all these pics,sleep,sleep and sleep.It means it is too much essential to sleep and rest brain and body and sleep is common in all creatures.