SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 1: Sleep and Marine Animals

You probably wake up each morning and go to sleep each night. That may seem normal to you, but it's not normal for some animals. Scientists have recently found that some marine animals have an unusual sleep pattern.

Scientists at a Sea World and an aquarium in Russia found that a mother killer whale and her baby will stay awake and active for about a month. Together, in about four or five months, they gradually work up to the normal sleeping habits of adult killer whales.

These same scientists found that bottle nosed dolphins and their newborns show strange sleeping behavior as well. Dolphins sleep with one eye open, and brain scans have shown that one side of the brain is in operation while the animal is at rest. Unlike humans, dolphins do not show rapid eye movement (REM) during their sleep cycle.

Scientists believe that REM sleep happens to keep the brain active and stimulated, while non-REM sleep is usually for rest. Because one side of a dolphin’s brain is always active it does not need REM sleep.

In humans, newborns need more sleep than kids and adults. The amount of sleep a person needs decreases as they grow.

Scientists are still unsure of how these two marine animals develop with a lack of sleep and strange sleep patterns. For now, these are the only two animals which go against the sleep patterns common in other animals.

--Written by Amelise Javier

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