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I think the article was talking specifically about humans, and not other species. In that case, there's a baseline of sleep required for a human. Need more th

I think the article was talking specifically about humans, and not other species. In that case, there's a baseline of sleep required for a human. Need more than that? You're a generalist. Need less? You're a specialist. When you go bringing in other species you have to change the baseline. Sloths and armadillos sleep as much as they do for other reasons than being worn out from brain plasticity.

gjm11 16y ago
> I think the article was talking specifically about humans, and not other species. Um. Looks to me as if it's almost all about _neural plasticity_, which is not at all the same thing as being a generalist human rather than a specialist one. And the only thing I can find in it that says anything about one set of humans versus another is a comment about autism. (Whether there's evidence that autistic people have less neural plasticity, I don't know.) And while I've only skimmed the paper they point to when saying that "one hypothesis holds that sleep is the price we have to pay for plasticity the previous day", I don't see anything in it that says anything about specialist versus generalist humans, or indeed about any group of humans versus any other.