Sleep is a very mysterious, keen interest of scientists, a condition necessary, as we imagine, for all life on earth. But is it? Is everyone sleeping? And which animals sleep with their eyes open? Let's look at them in the "bedroom".
So which animals sleep with their eyes open?
First fish come to mind. They have no eyelids, so their eyes are always open. In fact, no one was particularly concerned with the sleep of fish, probably because it was not of any interest to science. But marine mammals - dolphins and whales - have been studied tightly. And scientists have found that they cannot afford sleep in our understanding. Both dolphins and whales have to periodically come up to breathe air. Because of what, only one of the hemispheres sleeps in turn. And sharks generally need to rush under water, not stopping, because air can get into their blood only if the gills are washed with great speed by the water.
Does a cow sleep with open eyes?
Being interested in what animals sleep with their eyes open, many recall the giraffe. But this is not true! This myth is probably based on the feature that a giraffe can do without sleep for weeks. It is enough for him to take a nap during the day for about 20 minutes in order to restore strength. At this time, he sticks his head between the thick branches of the trees and, thanks to the strong neck muscles, does not fall. And for sleep, the animal lies down and wraps its neck around its legs.
But the cows, sheep and horses are sleeping and standing, not closing their eyes, and lying down, dropping their eyelids. Obviously, they are forced to do this by a situation or mood. Four hours is enough for them to sleep, and all the rest of the time they just doze off. By the way, it was at this time that the cow was chewing its “chewing gum”. She makes similar movements with her jaw during that part of sleep, which is called slow. And dreams of cows and horses are only seen lying.
These animals belong to those who know how to sleep with the so-called “herd” sleep, during which animals rest massively, and several individuals vigilantly guard their peace and bliss. Then the watchmen change.
Thinking about which animals sleep with their eyes open, people, as a rule, also call snakes that have transparent eyelids fused together, and insects that have no eyelids at all.
For example, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania discovered how Drosophila flies sleep. It turns out that their sleep is quite long - almost eight hours. At the same time, a swarm of flies spreads to places convenient for themselves, and each individual, lying on its abdomen and carefully looking away from food, falls asleep. And so: 5 hours a night and up to 3 hours during the day.
And which animal does not sleep?
It was previously believed that birds do not sleep during migrations. But it turned out that this is not so. Every ten minutes, one of the birds flies into the very middle of the flock and sleeps there. It happens like this: she flaps her wings only a little, so as not to fall, but carries her stream of air created with the help of the whole flock. Then the next bird makes her way to replace it. But to catch the period when the cuckoo sleeps, has not yet succeeded. She is in "trouble" day and night.
Bees are also in constant motion. Probably, they are somehow resting, it just happens in a very short time or too rarely.
The concept of ants has also changed. They used to be classified as animals that never sleep. But it turns out that they sleep almost 4 hours a day. Just ants fall asleep 250 times and at the same time sleep 1 minute. By the way, waking up, they even stretch!
