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As the article mentions, between these reindeer sleeping while they eat and penguins sleeping for 4 seconds at a time, it's pretty amazing what we're learning a
by roldie 3y ago
As the article mentions, between these reindeer sleeping while they eat and penguins sleeping for 4 seconds at a time, it's pretty amazing what we're learning about how animals sleep. I wonder if humans can ever learn to use these "other" means of sleep
- HumblyTossed 3y agoBabies "dream feed", so maybe it's that we forget how to do things.
- Waterluvian 3y agoOr become physiologically incapable of it. But that might just be “forgetting.”
- Solvency 3y agoAs a recent parent of a 3 month old the stupidity of our evolutionary design baffles me. Why do you have to laboriously teach babies to fall asleep, stay asleep, etc. Even in contact naps where they should theoretically feel absolutely safe and biologically cared for. The sheer amount of absolutely ridiculous life draining energy that goes into getting a baby to do basic primitive biological things is crazy.
- Swizec 3y ago> Why do you have to laboriously teach babies [basic survival things] Because we are born prematurely. Our brain wouldn’t fit through the birth canal if we were born later with more basic skills baked in. So instead we finish a big part of our early development outside the womb.
- AeroNotix 3y agoMarsupials also use this tactic.
- eternauta3k 3y agoWe changed a million things about our environment and a couple of those things turned out to be important.
- gardenhedge 3y agoAn interesting thing is not all babies need to be taught this
- bongodongobob 3y agoJust put it out in the barn, it'll sleep. Or float it down the river if you think it's caused by demons. People didn't even name their kids for a year even 100 years ago. Point is that modern child rearing isn't even similar to what we had 3-4 generations ago. The "weak" were weeded out. If you had to choose between the family surviving and dealing with a finicky newborn... compromises were made.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Eji1700 3y agoThere's the "uber sleep" method or whatever it's called. Made the rounds in my circle of friends in like...2007ish? Basically you force yourself to only take 4 15 minute naps a day. A utterly hellish thing to do, but eventually your brain figures out that you've decided to terrorize it and will instantly dip into REM the moment you fall asleep, and you'll wake up feeling rested and only need to sleep an hour a day. I personally tried this for a bit and it kinda sorta works, but it's awful to get started, and the first time you sleep more than 15 minutes you're going to break the trend and revert, and who knows what long term effects it has on people. Sleep in general is one of those really interesting areas of biology that we still don't get.
- chch 3y agoI was actually just talking about this yesterday! That schedule I'd read about was the Überman schedule, where you sleep 20-30 minutes six times a day. Definitely a much more extreme form than most polyphasic sleep schedules. :) I read a series of blog posts about it, probably around the same time as you did, and found them again [1] last night. I didn't actually read through it again, but if anyone's interested in reading more about someone's firsthand experience with it, could be a good classic read. [1] https://stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/ https://stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/
- antupis 3y agoIf I am on vacation or in some other relaxed environment, I will go into a state where I sleep 6 hours at night but also take a siesta or 15-minute to 30-minute nap in the middle of the day.
- lm28469 3y agoCan't find the study right now but these alternative sleep schedules absolutely destroy your growth hormone release, and probably a few other mechanisms
- richbell 3y agoThis is what I've read as well. I can't remember where, but I was listening to a guy talk about his sleep disorder and one of the main symptoms he described was being able to instantly fall into REM.
- ModernMech 3y agoIn grad school I developed a sleep every other day lifestyle. Would not recommend.
- qumpis 3y agoWas it more productive, objectively speaking, than being consistent and not dealing with the constant drainage due to severely lacking sleep?
- ModernMech 3y agoThe logic was that I could have 36 hours uninterrupted, and then sleep for like 12, averaging 6 per 24 hours, which seemed reasonable. It’s a recipe for burnout, but I did get a lot done. A good protocol for very tight important deadlines, but it took its toll.
- qumpis 3y agoToll noticable only back in those days or even in the future?
- ModernMech 3y agoNothing but a deep forehead wrinkle :P
- scrozart 3y agoSleeping in more than one long chunk of time is called polyphasic sleeping [0]. It's postulated that sleeping in one go is an industrial age phenomenon. Anecdotal, but I embraced a mild form of this during college, using "Einstein naps" (brief naps ended just after dozing) for a recharge between my work day and night classes. I experienced nitably improved focus and less evening burnout. 0. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
- blowski 3y agoMany new parents know how invigorating a 10 second nap can be.
- saalweachter 3y agoIt's crazy how you go two, three months and then when you get four hours in a row you wake up feeling amazing, newly clear-headed, and knowing you got objectively bad sleep you wonder how messed up you were before.
- codpiece 3y agoHa! My fondest memories were taking 5 minute naps with my first child.
- ycombinete 3y agoMaybe it’s also a caffeine thing. When I’m off of caffeine I can take multiple daytime naps. They feel great and are very refreshing. When I’m drinking caffeine it’s hard enough just to get to sleep at the end of the day.
- IlliOnato 3y agoAnother drastic example of animal sleep being very different from ours is dolphins. Dolphins sleep "one hemisphere at a time". > Research has shown that dolphins are able to sleep with only half of their brain at a time, a phenomenon known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS). During USWS, one hemisphere of the brain remains active while the other hemisphere rests. This allows dolphins to continue swimming, surfacing for air, and avoiding predators while still getting the rest they need. Try that! :-)
- verytrivial 3y agoDucks apparently do half-brain sleeping too. If I recall correctly it has something to do with sitting side by side, and that they can let the half on their brain not attached to the "look-out" eye rest.