Hi everyone,
was just reading an interesting article in Nature (397:397-398, 1999)
which details the ability of birds to sleep with only half of their
brain. This sleep type (unihemispheric slow wave sleep or USWS) is
apparently also known in aquatic mammals where it allows them to
sleep but still surface to breathe. This paper suggests that birds
can sleep with one eye open and with one hemisphere awake to look out
for predators. Also the likelihood of using this sleep pattern is
significantly increased if a bird is in a high predation risk situation (in the
paper they used ducks at the edge of a group). So the conclusion is
that birds can modulate the type of sleep depending on their
situation with more REM sleep (which I guess gives better rest) if
the bird is not in a high risk predation situation.
Just thought people might find this interesting as I did.
Best Wishes
John Boyce
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