• Question: How do you sleep?

    Asked by pdawg to Emperor Dragonfly, Brown garden snail, St Kilda Wren, Hazel Dormouse, Common Crane, Catshark, Barn Owl, Scotch Thistle on 21 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by emilylime, game1010, hannahannah, ccarton676.
    • Photo: Emperor Dragonfly

      Emperor Dragonfly answered on 21 Nov 2017:

      I don’t think my scientist has ever seen an adult dragonfly asleep, but we do hang on branches of trees when it is cold and dark (or raining). Basically if there is no prey flying (flies, mosquitoes etc) then we are resting…

      Larval dragonflies (nypmphs) spend most of their time in the mud at the bottom of ponds eating other larval water insects and worms (they really like bloodworms!) growing bigger. As it is always pretty dark I guess they don’t go to sleep much at night, but during the winter, when the pond surface might freeze, they burrow down in the mud (which won’t freeze) to hibernate until spring – so I guess this is sleeping, but in a cold muddy bed!

    • Photo: Tomeu the snail

      Tomeu the snail answered on 7 Dec 2017:

      Good question. Not sure that they do – but would you design an experiment to find out?

    • Photo: Lesser-Spotted Catshark

      Lesser-Spotted Catshark answered on 8 Dec 2017:

      Do you mean ‘how do you sleep with the guilt of eating so many fish??’

      During the daytime I usually find a nook between rocks to catch some ‘shut eye’ (my eyes don’t actually shut). Not very much is known about the brain activity of sharks when they are sleeping or ‘in repose’. We could definitely use some more shark scientists working on figuring this out!

    • Photo: Hazel Dormouse

      Hazel Dormouse answered on 8 Dec 2017:

      I eat so much food that I DOUBLE in size. Once I feel nice and fat and full, I curl up in a very tight spiral and snooze on down for over half the year. Outside of hibernation, the Hazel Dormouse only sleeps for short periods and very lightly to stay alert.

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