Learning About Sleeping From Animals

What Animals Can Tell us about Sleeping

Annie Aulsebrook | June 10, 2016

Sleep forms a basic part of our everyday lives, yet surprisingly little is known about its purpose and evolutionary history.
To really understand sleep, we need to look beyond behaviour—and beyond the laboratory. In a research paper published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, my colleagues and I argue that sleep research needs new approaches.
Specifically, integrating two fields of science: neuroscience (the study of the nervous system, including the brain) and ecology (the study of organisms in their environment).

(Capybaras and ducks) Source: http://en.newsner.com/21-pictures-of-animals-sleeping-together-despite-their-differences

(Cat upon dog) Source: http://en.newsner.com/21-pictures-of-animals-sleeping-together-despite-their-differences

<more at http://phys.org/news/2016-06-animals.html; related articles and links: https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/animals-sleep-there-human-connection (Animals' Sleep: Is There a Human Connection? 2014) and http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45395/title/Who-Sleeps-/ (Who Sleeps? Once believed to be unique to birds and mammals, sleep is found across the metazoan kingdom. Some animals, it seems, can’t live without it, though no one knows exactly why. March 1, 2016)>