Hemisphere of a Dolphin sleep in turns: how was the sleep

© Simon Cheung

What is the nature of sleep, what is similar and what is different about the sleep of animal and human, said doctor of biological Sciences on lektsiyu State historical Museum named after Timiryazev. The scientific study of sleep began after the discovery by Hans Berger in 1928, the method of electroencephalography (EEG), allows you to register the slightest changes of the function of the cerebral cortex. Later, American scientists have found that during sleep the electrical activity of the brain is higher than during wakefulness. However, the real revolution was made by experts from the laboratory of Chicago, that tracked the electrical activity of the brain over night, and proved the existence desvanecimiento cycle in humans. Over this period there is a transition from one sleep phase to another, and the same time the person holds attention on the object and then disperses. In 1953, Nathaniel Kleitman with his assistant noticed a quick movement of the eyeballs in newborns during sleep. They examined infants using EEG and opened a phase of REM-sleep (from the first letters of rapid eyes movements — rapid eye movement) during which dreaming. This year is the year of the birth of the science of sleep — the sleep. Unfortunately, the scientists themselves did not fully realize the importance of their discovery. They believed that the found phase is the phase of slumber, which is also accompanied by rapid eye movements. And only in 60-e years, Michel Jouvet was able to prove that this is not the period of dormancy, as part of a dream.

Horror horror: top 5 most common nightmares

Studying rabbits and hares in a state of sleep, Jouvet found that they, too, have dreams, and just like in humans, first comes the slow sleep (without dreams), and then the same REM-phase, which he has called quick sleep, or paradoxical (because there is a paradoxical combination of full muscle relaxation, and unusually high brain — twitching legs, the tips of the ears, etc.).

During the night, the man replaced 3-4 hour and a half of the cycle. The first part of the night we sleep slow sleep with different stages of immersion (experimentally proved that animals that were deprived of sleep the first part of the night, killed). And at the same time, the activation of genes associated with metabolic processes of the body, which during wakefulness are not produced for unknown reasons, science.

And the second part of the night — a quick sleep, and why we need REM sleep remains a mystery. In any case, this refutes the current theory that you can sleep for 1.5 or 4 hours and feel rested. Also scientists distinguish such a relationship: no sleep no normal wakefulness, and Vice versa, i.e. you cannot skimp on sleep.

Sleep is also linked to the work of brain cells, which operate like biological clocks. The recharge period of hours is 25 hours. And when in the morning the man wakes up and sees the light, special cells in the eye responsible only for the perception of light, transmit the information of the "biological clock", and they are set up. The blind these cells die.

In addition, the sleep noticed that in the process of growing a human has to monitor periods of sleep. If the newborn day consists of a constant succession of periods of sleep and wakefulness, in the adult they fuse together in one night, and with day have to fight. So during the day can receive two periods of sleepiness left over from infancy.

A newborn child also there are periods of activated sleep (when he builds grimaces, smiles etc) that with age develop into REM sleep. The beginnings of activated sleep in the fetus occur already in the womb, it affects the formation of the nervous system and prepares it for receipt of information from the outside world.

It should be noted that during dreaming we have no thermoregulation as cold-blooded, such as crocodiles. However, cold-blooded never dream. And at the same time, scientists see a similarity between the nervous systems of fish, Zebra, fruit flies, annelids and humans (of course, many times simplified). Based on this, it appears the theory that the rest are cold-blooded animals evolved in a slow sleep of warm-blooded and active in REM sleep.

Animals who have dreams, are both forms of sleep, with the exception of the Dolphin. It is designed so that the hole on top should never get water, otherwise Dolphin will die, so he's hemispheres take turns sleeping. And seals sleeping in the water on your left side works the right brain and Vice versa, as well as dolphins have no REM sleep. But when the seals go on dry ground, hemisphere they sleep at the same time, and animal dreams.published

P. S. And remember, only by changing their consumption — together we change the world! ©

Source: theoryandpractice.ru