These Penguins Take Thousands Of Naps A Day, Keeps Them Safe From Predators

Photo byDerek OyenonUnsplash

Sleep, a vital biological process, continues to fascinate scientists worldwide.

Much like the universal truth in the book Everyone Poops, most animals sleep. Researchers have examined various creatures, from mice to fruit flies, in controlled settings to better grasp the mechanics and purpose of sleep. However, gathering sleep data on animals in their natural habitats has posed significant challenges.

Yet, scientists recently accomplished this feat with wild chinstrap penguins in Antarctica. NPR reports that their findings revealed that these birds in nesting colonies took over ten thousand microsleeps daily, totaling an impressive 11 hours of sleep.

The research was published in the journal Science on Thursday.

Vladyslav Vyazovskiy, a sleep neuroscientist at Oxford University who was not involved in the study, expressed enthusiasm about this new data. He noted, "Most of our knowledge about sleep's fundamental biology comes from artificial lab conditions, vastly different from where sleep evolved. Context is crucial."

Researchers discovered that these microsleeps last only seconds. They theorize that this ability to sleep in such brief intervals might help the penguins avoid predators, which could be more likely to attack during more extended sleep periods.

This is especially important as one parent often spends days feeding in the ocean, leaving the other to guard the eggs from predatory birds.

It's important to note that microsleep differs from the minutes-long micronaps known to benefit humans. Study co-author Paul-Antoine Libourel, a researcher at the French CNRS in Lyon's Neurosciences Research Center, cautions against drawing parallels between penguin microsleeps and human sleep patterns.

"This doesn't relate to human physiology or tell us more about human sleep function," Libourel explains.

While this study doesn't directly benefit human sleep research, it marks a significant advancement in collecting animal sleep data.

Scientists implanted devices in the brain and neck muscles of a small group of birds to study the penguins. These devices and video recordings of the nesting penguins provided comprehensive sleep data. Initially intended as a test run for the new equipment, the process was so successful that the data was included in this groundbreaking study.

This research offers early insights into the largely unexplored field of animal sleep. Libourel notes, "Almost every study on bird sleep uncovers something new, something previously unknown to us."

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