• Question: how do you get to sleep

    Asked by chloecousins123 to Hazel Dormouse, Barn Owl, Brown garden snail, Common Crane, Emperor Dragonfly, Catshark, Scotch Thistle, St Kilda Wren on 15 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by hannahannah.
    • Photo: Hazel Dormouse

      Hazel Dormouse answered on 15 Nov 2017:

      The longest and deepest sleep I experience is hibernation, which I do for 7 months over winter. Before that I spend time making myself a lovely comfortable nest and eat so much food I DOUBLE in weight. I also develop a thicker fur to keep me extra snug. Once I am all fat, warm and cosy I fall asleep and it takes a beautiful Spring day to wake me.

    • Photo: Lesser-Spotted Catshark

      Lesser-Spotted Catshark answered on 8 Dec 2017:

      We hardly know anything at all about how sharks sleep yet. Some sharks need to ‘sleep’ while swimming because they are ‘ram ventilators’ that need to force water past their gills by swimming. Other species like catsharks can repose on the bottom of the sea and use a buccal pump to breathe even while ‘sleeping’. How they prepare their bodies to sleep and what is happening with their brains is almost completely unknown…we need some more shark biologists to figure this out!

Comments

  • Photo: Emperor Dragonfly

    Emperor Dragonfly commented on :

    I suppose you might count it as sleep… Dragonfly nymphs (the larvae) become pretty much dormant over the winter, when it is realy cold. They sink down into the mud at the bottom of ponds and streams, where it does freeze and wait until things warm up in the spring and there are lots of squishy things to eat!