Still back at the curriculum lessons. Sleep, to be specific.
Ever wondered why we sleep? Me, too.
As you'd imagine, sleep is a recovery period for our bodies. Among other things, while they're on lighter duty (they still have to control our breathing and make our hearts beat and so forth), our brains create our memories. Yep. The stuff we've learned and the stuff that has happened in our lives doesn't really become part of our memories until we sleep on it. Sleeping is kind of like pressing "save." Information moves from our desktop to our hard drive when we sleep.
That makes perfect sense, but the other speculation about sleep surprised me. Some scientists believe humans (and other animals) developed sleep patterns as a response to danger. Ancient humans were more vulnerable to attack in the dark, and so they learned to stay in the cave and rest at night. Sleep is literally a mode of self protection.
And get this--not all animals follow that same day/night sleep pattern. Brown bats sleep 20 hours out of 24. They fly around in the dark, eating insects. Doesn't take that long to gather enough to meet their caloric requirements, and back to sleep they go.
Giraffes, on the other hand, sleep less than 2 hours--sometimes as little as 10 minutes--a day. Think about it: Giraffes eat leaves and twigs. It takes a hell of a lot of leaves and twigs to keep a body that size going. They adapted to sleep less, which leaves them more time to eat.
Adaptation. The ability to change in response to existing circumstances. What a concept. What an enormous gift. I'm going to spend this day being grateful for the ability to adapt. And trying to do it.
10 comments:
Love this.
I wish I was a bat.
;)
I think we can now safely say you're way smarter than a fifth grader.
I do wonder about that.
I sleep very little and eat all day. I must be a giraffe! If only I was taller.
I sleep a TON, twice as much as some people I know. Does this mean I'm "saving" twice as much on my hard drive? I'd like to think so.
Love these fun facts!
Yep, and this is why kids need sleep in order to learn.
Knowing how to adapt is a very big key to happiness.
:)
Hey, maybe this is why I don't remember anything since having a baby? Hmmm. But where AM I going during all those night hours? Hmmm.
Some say we reconnect with the Divine as we sleep.
I like that.
So these animals spend all their waking hours eating. Hmmmmmm.
I don't think adaptation is something we do. I think it's something we accept. I'm not very good at it.
My totem animal is a three toed sloth, mmnn sleep, delicious sleep. Then this from The Disappearance of the Universe- "when you sleep, you see all of these vivid images in your dreams, but your eyes are closed. This would mean you are seeing with your mind wouldn't it? During the day, when awake, you are still mostly seeing with the mind even though the eyes are open" (paraphrasing here but I think I got it right enough.)
Post a Comment