Dormancy

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormancy

 

During winter dormancy, plant metabolism virtually comes to a standstill due, in part, to low temperatures that slow chemical activity.

 

Dormancy is a period in an organism's life cycle when growth, development, and (in animals) physical activity are temporarily stopped. This minimizes metabolic activity and therefore helps an organism to conserve energy. Dormancy tends to be closely associated with environmental conditions. Organisms can synchronize entry to a dormant phase with their environment through predictive or consequential means. Predictive dormancy occurs when an organism enters a dormant phase before the onset of adverse conditions. For example, photoperiod and decreasing temperature are used by many plants to predict the onset of winter. Consequential dormancy occurs when organisms enter a dormant phase after adverse conditions have arisen. This is commonly found in areas with an unpredictable climate. While very sudden changes in conditions may lead to a high mortality rate among animals relying on consequential dormancy, its use can be advantageous, as organisms remain active longer and are therefore able to make greater use of available resources. 

Animals

Hibernation

Hibernation is a mechanism used by many mammals to reduce energy expenditure and survive food shortage over the winter. Hibernation may be predictive or consequential. An animal prepares for hibernation by building up a thick layer of body fat during late summer and autumn that will provide it with energy during the dormant period. During hibernation, the animal undergoes many physiological changes, including decreased heart rate (by as much as 95%) and decreased body temperature. In addition to shivering, some hibernating animals also produce body heat by non-shivering thermogenesis to avoid freezing. Non-shivering thermogenesis is a regulated process in which the proton gradient generated by electron transport in mitochondria is used to produce heat instead of ATP in brown adipose tissue.^[3] Animals that hibernate include bats, ground squirrels and other rodents, mouse lemurs, the European hedgehog and other insectivores, monotremes and marsupials. Although hibernation is almost exclusively seen in mammals, some birds, such as the common poorwill, may hibernate.

Diapause

Diapause is a predictive strategy that is predetermined by an animal's genotype. Diapause is common in insects, allowing them to suspend development between autumn and spring, and in mammals such as the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus, the only ungulate with embryonic diapause), in which a delay in attachment of the embryo to the uterine lining ensures that offspring are born in spring, when conditions are most favorable.

Aestivation

Aestivation, also spelled estivation, is an example of consequential dormancy in response to very hot or dry conditions. It is common in invertebrates such as the garden snail and worm but also occurs in other animals such as lungfish, salamanders, desert tortoises, and crocodiles. 

Brumation

While endotherms and other heterotherms are described scientifically as hibernating, the way ectotherms like lizards become dormant in cold is very different, and a separate name was invented for it in the 1920s, brumation. It differs from hibernation in the metabolic processes involved.

Reptiles generally begin brumation in late autumn (more specific times depend on the species). They often wake up to drink water and return to "sleep". They can go for months without food. Reptiles may eat more than usual before the brumation time but eat less or refuse food as the temperature drops. However, they do need to drink water. The brumation period is anywhere from one to eight months depending on the air temperature and the size, age, and health of the reptile. During the first year of life, many small reptiles do not fully brumate, but rather slow down and eat less often. Brumation is triggered by lack of heat and the decrease in the hours of daylight in winter, similar to hibernation. 

Plants

In plant physiology, dormancy is a period of arrested plant growth. It is a survival strategy exhibited by many plant species, which enables them to survive in climates where part of the year is unsuitable for growth, such as winter or dry seasons.

Many plant species that exhibit dormancy have a biological clock that tells them when to slow activity and to prepare soft tissues for a period of freezing temperatures or water shortage. On the other hand, dormancy can be triggered after a normal growing season by decreasing temperatures, shortened day length, and/or a reduction in rainfall. Chemical treatment on dormant plants has been proven to be an effective method to break dormancy, particularly in woody plants such as grapes, berries, apples, peaches and kiwis. Specifically, hydrogen cyanamide stimulates cell division and growth in dormant plants, causing budbreak when the plant is on the edge of breaking dormancy.^{[citation needed]} Slight injury of cells may play a role in the mechanism of action. The injury is thought to result in increased permeability of cellular membranes. The injury is associated with the inhibition of catalase, which in turn stimulates the pentose phosphate cycle. Hydrogen cyanamide interacts with the cytokinin metabolic cycle, which results in triggering a new growth cycle. The images below show two particularly widespread dormancy patterns amongst sympodially growing orchids:

Annual life cycle of sympodially growing orchids with dormancy after completion of new growth/pseudobulb, e.g., Miltonia, or Odontoglossum

 

Annual life cycle of sympodially growing orchids with dormancy after blooming, e.g., Cycnoches ventricosum, Dendrobium nobile, or Laelia

 

Seeds

When a mature and viable seed under a favorable condition fails to germinate, it is said to be dormant. Seed dormancy is referred to as embryo dormancy or internal dormancy and is caused by endogenous characteristics of the embryo that prevent germination (Black M, Butler J, Hughes M. 1987). Dormancy should not be confused with seed coat dormancy, external dormancy, or hardseededness, which is caused by the presence of a hard seed covering or seed coat that prevents water and oxygen from reaching and activating the embryo. It is a physical barrier to germination, not a true form of dormancy (Quinliven, 1971; Quinliven and Nichol, 1971).

Seed dormancy is desired in nature, but the opposite in agriculture field. This is due to agricultural practice desires rapid germination and growth for food while as in nature, most plants are only capable of germinating once every year, making it favorable for plants to pick a specific time to reproduce. For many plants, it is preferable to reproduce in spring as opposed to fall even when there are similar conditions in terms of light and temperature due to the ensuing winter that follows fall. Many plants and seeds do recognize this and enters a dormant period in the fall to stop growing. Grain is a popular example in this aspect, where they would die above ground during the winter, so dormancy is favorable to its seedlings but extensive domestication and crossbreeding has removed most dormancy mechanisms that their ancestors had.

While seed dormancy is linked to many genes, Abscisic Acid (ABA), a plant hormone, has been linked as a major influencer to seed dormancy. In a study on rice and tobacco plants, plants defective in zeaxanthin epoxidase gene, which are linked to ABA-synthesis pathway. Seeds with higher ABA content, from over expressing zeaxanthin epoxidase, led to an increased dormancy period while plants with lower numbers of zeaxanthin epoxidase shown to have shorter period of dormancy. A simple diagram can be drawn of ABA inhibits seed germination, while Gibberellin (GA, also plant hormone), inhibits ABA production and promotes seed germination.

Trees

Typically, temperate woody perennial plants require chilling temperatures to overcome winter dormancy (rest). The effect of chilling temperatures depends on species and growth stage (Fuchigami et al. 1987). In some species, rest can be broken within hours at any stage of dormancy, with either chemicals, heat, or freezing temperatures, effective dosages of which would seem to be a function of sublethal stress, which results in stimulation of ethylene production and increased cell membrane permeability. 

Dormancy is a general term applicable to any instance in which a tissue predisposed to elongate or grow in some other manner does not do so (Nienstaedt 1966). Quiescence is dormancy imposed by the external environment. Correlated inhibition is a kind of physiological dormancy maintained by agents or conditions originating within the plant, but not within the dormant tissue itself. Rest (winter dormancy) is a kind of physiological dormancy maintained by agents or conditions within the organ itself. However, physiological subdivisions of dormancy do not coincide with the morphological dormancy found in white spruce (Picea glauca) and other conifers (Owens et al. 1977). Physiological dormancy often includes early stages of bud-scale initiation before measurable shoot elongation or before flushing. It may also include late leaf initiation after shoot elongation has been completed. In either of those cases, buds that appear to be dormant are nevertheless very active morphologically and physiologically. 

Dormancy of various kinds is expressed in white spruce (Romberger 1963). White spruce, like many woody plants in temperate and cooler regions, requires exposure to low temperature for a period of weeks before it can resume normal growth and development. This “chilling requirement” for white spruce is satisfied by uninterrupted exposure to temperatures below 7 °C for 4 to 8 weeks, depending on physiological condition (Nienstaedt 1966, 1967).

Tree species that have well-developed dormancy needs may be tricked to some degree, but not completely. For instance, if a Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) is given an "eternal summer" through exposure to additional daylight, it grows continuously for as long as two years. Eventually, however, a temperate-climate plant automatically goes dormant, no matter what environmental conditions it experiences. Deciduous plants lose their leaves; evergreens curtail all new growth. Going through an "eternal summer" and the resultant automatic dormancy is stressful to the plant and usually fatal. The fatality rate increases to 100% if the plant does not receive the necessary period of cold temperatures required to break the dormancy. Most plants require a certain number of hours of "chilling" at temperatures between about 0 °C and 10 °C to be able to break dormancy (Bewley, Black, K.D 1994). 

Short photoperiods induce dormancy and permit the formation of needle primordia. Primordia formation requires 8 to 10 weeks and must be followed by 6 weeks of chilling at 2 °C. Bud break occurs promptly if seedlings are then exposed to 16-hour photoperiods at the 25 °C/20 °C temperature regime. The free growth mode, a juvenile characteristic that is lost after 5 years or so, ceases in seedlings experiencing environmental stress (Logan and Pollard 1976, Logan 1977).

Bacteria

Many bacteria can survive adverse conditions such as temperature, desiccation, and antibiotics by endospores, cysts, conidia or states of reduced metabolic activity lacking specialized cellular structures. Up to 80% of the bacteria in samples from the wild appear to be metabolically inactive—many of which can be resuscitated. Such dormancy is responsible for the high diversity levels of most natural ecosystems.

Recent research has characterized the bacterial cytoplasm as a glass forming fluid approaching the liquid-glass transition, such that large cytoplasmic components require the aid of metabolic activity to fluidize the surrounding cytoplasm, allowing them to move through a viscous, glass-like cytoplasm. During dormancy, when such metabolic activities are put on hold, the cytoplasm behaves like a solid glass, 'freezing' subcellular structures in place and perhaps protecting them, while allowing small molecules like metabolites to move freely through the cell, which may be helpful in cells transitioning out of dormancy.

Viruses

Dormancy in its rigid definition doesn't apply to viruses, as they are not metabolically active. However, some viruses such as poxviruses and picornaviruses after entering the host can become latent for long periods of time, or even indefinitely until they are externally activated. Herpesviruses for example can become latent after infecting the host and after years activate again if the host is under stress or exposed to ultraviolet radiation.

Sleep in non-human animals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_in_non-human_animals 

 

A sleeping cat

Sleep in non-human animals refers to a behavioral and physiological state characterized by altered consciousness, reduced responsiveness to external stimuli, and homeostatic regulation. Sleep is observed in mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and some fish, and, in some form, in insects and even in simpler animals such as nematodes. The internal circadian clock promotes sleep at night for diurnal organisms (such as humans) and in the day for nocturnal organisms (such as rodents). Sleep patterns vary widely among species. It appears to be a requirement for all mammals and most other animals.

Definition

Sleep can follow a physiological or behavioral definition. In the physiological sense, sleep is a state characterized by reversible unconsciousness, special brainwave patterns, sporadic eye movement, loss of muscle tone (possibly with some exceptions; see below regarding the sleep of birds and of aquatic mammals), and a compensatory increase following deprivation of the state. In the behavioral sense, sleep is characterized by minimal movement, non-responsiveness to external stimuli (i.e. increased sensory threshold), the adoption of a typical posture, and the occupation of a sheltered site, all of which is usually repeated on a 24-hour basis. The physiological definition applies well to birds and mammals, but in other animals (whose brain is not as complex), the behavioral definition is more often used. In very simple animals, behavioral definitions of sleep are the only ones possible, and even then the behavioral repertoire of the animal may not be extensive enough to allow distinction between sleep and wakefulness. Sleep is quickly reversible, as opposed to hibernation or coma, and sleep deprivation is followed by longer or deeper rebound sleep. 

Necessity

If sleep were not essential, one would expect to find:

• Animal species that do not sleep at all
• Animals that do not need recovery sleep after staying awake longer than usual
• Animals that suffer no serious consequences as a result of lack of sleep

Outside of a few basal animals that have no brain or a very simple one, no animals have been found to date that satisfy any of these criteria. While some varieties of shark, such as great whites and hammerheads, must remain in motion at all times to move oxygenated water over their gills, it is possible they still sleep one cerebral hemisphere at a time as marine mammals do. However it remains to be shown definitively whether any fish is capable of unihemispheric sleep.

Invertebrates

Caenorhabditis elegans is among the most primitive organisms in which sleep-like states have been observed.

 

A cuckoo bee from the genus Nomada, sleeping. Note the characteristic position anchored by the mandibles. Bees have some of the most complex sleep states amongst insects.

 

Sleep as a phenomenon appears to have very old evolutionary roots. Unicellular organisms do not necessarily "sleep", although many of them have pronounced circadian rhythms. The jellyfish Cassiopea is among the most primitive organism in which sleep-like states have been observed. The nematode C. elegans is another primitive organism that appears to require sleep. Here, a lethargus phase occurs in short periods preceding each moult, a fact which may indicate that sleep primitively is connected to developmental processes. Raizen et al.'s results furthermore suggest that sleep is necessary for changes in the neural system.

The electrophysiological study of sleep in small invertebrates is complicated. Insects go through circadian rhythms of activity and passivity but some do not seem to have a homeostatic sleep need. Insects do not seem to exhibit REM sleep. However, fruit flies appear to sleep, and systematic disturbance of that state leads to cognitive disabilities. There are several methods of measuring cognitive functions in fruit flies. A common method is to let the flies choose whether they want to fly through a tunnel that leads to a light source, or through a dark tunnel. Normally, flies are attracted to light. But if sugar is placed in the end of the dark tunnel, and something the flies dislike is placed in the end of the light tunnel, the flies will eventually learn to fly towards darkness rather than light. Flies deprived of sleep require a longer time to learn this and also forget it more quickly. If an arthropod is experimentally kept awake longer than it is used to, then its coming rest period will be prolonged. In cockroaches that rest period is characterized by the antennae being folded down and by a decreased sensitivity to external stimuli. Sleep has been described in crayfish, too, characterized by passivity and increased thresholds for sensory stimuli as well as changes in the EEG pattern, markedly differing from the patterns found in crayfish when they are awake. In honeybees, it has been suggested they could be able to dream.

Fish

Sleep in fish is subject of current scientific research. Typically fish exhibit periods of inactivity but show no significant reactions to deprivation of this condition. Some species that always live in shoals or that swim continuously (because of a need for ram ventilation of the gills, for example) are suspected never to sleep. There is also doubt about certain blind species that live in caves. Other fish seem to sleep, however. For example, zebrafish, tilapia, tench, brown bullhead, and swell shark become motionless and unresponsive at night (or by day, in the case of the swell shark); Spanish hogfish and blue-headed wrasse can even be lifted by hand all the way to the surface without evoking a response. A 1961 observational study of approximately 200 species in European public aquaria reported many cases of apparent sleep. On the other hand, sleep patterns are easily disrupted and may even disappear during periods of migration, spawning, and parental care.

Land vertebrates

Mammals, birds and reptiles evolved from amniotic ancestors, the first vertebrates with life cycles independent of water. The fact that birds and mammals are the only known animals to exhibit REM and NREM sleep indicates a common trait before divergence. However, recent evidence of REM-like sleep in fish suggests this divergence may have occurred much earlier than previously thought. Up to this point, reptiles were considered the most logical group to investigate the origins of sleep. Daytime activity in reptiles alternates between basking and short bouts of active behavior, which has significant neurological and physiological similarities to sleep states in mammals. It is proposed that REM sleep evolved from short bouts of motor activity in reptiles while Slow-Wave Sleep (SWS) evolved from their basking state which shows similar slow wave EEG patterns.

Reptiles and amphibians

Sleeping African dwarf Fischer's chameleon

 

A Komodo dragon sleeping.

Reptiles have quiescent periods similar to mammalian sleep, and a decrease in electrical activity in the brain has been registered when the animals have been asleep. However, the EEG pattern in reptilian sleep differs from what is seen in mammals and other animals. In reptiles, sleep time increases following sleep deprivation, and stronger stimuli are needed to awaken the animals when they have been deprived of sleep as compared to when they have slept normally. This suggests that the sleep which follows deprivation is compensatorily deeper.

In 2016, a study report the existence of REM- and NREM-like sleep stages in the Australian dragon Pogona vitticeps. Amphibians have periods of inactivity but show high vigilance (receptivity to potentially threatening stimuli) in this state.

Birds

There are significant similarities between sleep in birds and sleep in mammals, which is one of the reasons for the idea that sleep in higher animals with its division into REM and NREM sleep has evolved together with warm-bloodedness. Birds compensate for sleep loss in a manner similar to mammals, by deeper or more intense SWS (slow-wave sleep).

Birds have both REM and NREM sleep, and the EEG patterns of both have similarities to those of mammals. Different birds sleep different amounts, but the associations seen in mammals between sleep and variables such as body mass, brain mass, relative brain mass, basal metabolism and other factors (see below) are not found in birds. The only clear explanatory factor for the variations in sleep amounts for birds of different species is that birds who sleep in environments where they are exposed to predators have less deep sleep than birds sleeping in more protected environments.

A sleeping cockatiel

 

A flamingo with at least one cerebral hemisphere awake

Birds do not necessarily exhibit sleep debt, but a peculiarity that birds share with aquatic mammals, and possibly also with certain species of lizards (opinions differ about that last point), is the ability for unihemispheric sleep. That is the ability to sleep with one cerebral hemisphere at a time, while the other hemisphere is awake (Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep). When only one hemisphere is sleeping, only the contralateral eye will be shut; that is, when the right hemisphere is asleep the left eye will be shut, and vice versa. The distribution of sleep between the two hemispheres and the amount of unihemispheric sleep are determined both by which part of the brain has been the most active during the previous period of wake—that part will sleep the deepest—and it is also determined by the risk of attacks from predators. Ducks near the perimeter of the flock are likely to be the ones that first will detect predator attacks. These ducks have significantly more unihemispheric sleep than those who sleep in the middle of the flock, and they react to threatening stimuli seen by the open eye.

Opinions partly differ about sleep in migratory birds. The controversy is mainly about whether they can sleep while flying or not. Theoretically, certain types of sleep could be possible while flying, but technical difficulties preclude the recording of brain activity in birds while they are flying.

Mammals

Sleeping Japanese macaques.

 

Mammals have wide diversity in sleep phenomena. Generally, they go through periods of alternating non-REM and REM sleep, but these manifest differently. Horses and other herbivorous ungulates can sleep while standing, but must necessarily lie down for REM sleep (which causes muscular atony) for short periods. Giraffes, for example, only need to lie down for REM sleep for a few minutes at a time. Bats sleep while hanging upside down. Male armadillos get erections during non-REM sleep, and the inverse is true in rats. Early mammals engaged in polyphasic sleep, dividing sleep into multiple bouts per day. Higher daily sleep quotas and shorter sleep cycles in polyphasic species as compared to monophasic species, suggest that polyphasic sleep may be a less efficient means of attaining sleep’s benefits. Small species with higher BMR may therefore have less efficient sleep patterns. It follows that the evolution of monophasic sleep may hitherto be an unknown advantage of evolving larger mammalian body sizes and therefore lower BMR.

Sleep is sometimes thought to help conserve energy, though this theory is not fully adequate as it only decreases metabolism by about 5–10%. Additionally it is observed that mammals require sleep even during the hypometabolic state of hibernation, in which circumstance it is actually a net loss of energy as the animal returns from hypothermia to euthermia in order to sleep.

Nocturnal animals have higher body temperatures, greater activity, rising serotonin, and diminishing cortisol during the night—the inverse of diurnal animals. Nocturnal and diurnal animals both have increased electrical activity in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and corresponding secretion of melatonin from the pineal gland, at night. Nocturnal mammals, which tend to stay awake at night, have higher melatonin at night just like diurnal mammals do. And, although removing the pineal gland in many animals abolishes melatonin rhythms, it does not stop circadian rhythms altogether—though it may alter them and weaken their responsiveness to light cues. Cortisol levels in diurnal animals typically rise throughout the night, peak in the awakening hours, and diminish during the day. In diurnal animals, sleepiness increases during the night. 

Duration

Flying foxes, asleep

Different mammals sleep different amounts. Some, such as bats, sleep 18–20 hours per day, while others, including giraffes, sleep only 3–4 hours per day. There can be big differences even between closely related species. There can also be differences between laboratory and field studies: for example, researchers in 1983 reported that captive sloths slept nearly 16 hours a day, but in 2008, when miniature neurophysiological recorders were developed that could be affixed to wild animals, sloths in nature were found to sleep only 9.6 hours a day.

Sleeping polar bears

As with birds, the main rule for mammals (with certain exceptions, see below) is that they have two essentially different stages of sleep: REM and NREM sleep (see above). Mammals' feeding habits are associated with their sleep length. The daily need for sleep is highest in carnivores, lower in omnivores and lowest in herbivores. Humans sleep less than many other omnivores but otherwise not unusually much or unusually little in comparison with other mammals.

Many herbivores, like Ruminantia (such as cattle), spend much of their wake time in a state of drowsiness, which perhaps could partly explain their relatively low need for sleep. In herbivores, an inverse correlation is apparent between body mass and sleep length; big mammals sleep less than smaller ones. This correlation is thought to explain about 25% of the difference in sleep amount between different mammals. Also, the length of a particular sleep cycle is associated with the size of the animal; on average, bigger animals will have sleep cycles of longer durations than smaller animals. Sleep amount is also coupled to factors like basal metabolism, brain mass, and relative brain mass. The duration of sleep among species is also directly related to basal metabolic rate (BMR). Rats, which have a high BMR, sleep for up to 14 hours a day, whereas elephants and giraffes, which have lower BMRs, sleep only 3–4 hours per day.

It has been suggested that mammalian species which invest in longer sleep times are investing in the immune system, as species with the longer sleep times have higher white blood cell counts. Mammals born with well-developed regulatory systems, such as the horse and giraffe, tend to have less REM sleep than the species which are less developed at birth, such as cats and rats. This appears to echo the greater need for REM sleep among newborns than among adults in most mammal species. Many mammals sleep for a large proportion of each 24-hour period when they are very young. The giraffe only sleeps 2 hours a day in about 5–15 minute sessions. Koalas are the longest sleeping-mammals, about 20–22 hours a day. However, killer whales and some other dolphins do not sleep during the first month of life. Instead, young dolphins and whales frequently take rests by pressing their body next to their mother’s while she swims. As the mother swims she is keeping her offspring afloat to prevent them from drowning. This allows young dolphins and whales to rest, which will help keep their immune system healthy; in turn, protecting them from illnesses. During this period, mothers often sacrifice sleep for the protection of their young from predators. However, unlike other mammals, adult dolphins and whales are able to go without sleep for a month.

Comparative average sleep periods for various mammals (in captivity) over 24 hours.

A sleeping dog

• Horses – 2 hours
• Elephants – 3+ hours
• Cows – 4.0 hours
• Giraffes – 4.5 hours
• Humans – 8.0 hours
• Rabbits – 8.4 hours
• Chimpanzees – 9.7 hours
• Red foxes – 9.8 hours
• Dogs – 10.1 hours
• House mice – 12.5 hours
• Cats – 12.5 hours
• Lions – 13.5 hours
• Platypuses – 14 hours
• Chipmunks – 15 hours
• Giant armadillos – 18.1 hours
• Little brown bats – 19.9 hours

Reasons given for the wide variations include the fact that mammals "that nap in hiding, like bats or rodents tend to have longer, deeper snoozes than those on constant alert." Lions, which have little fear of predators also have relatively long sleep periods, while elephants have to eat most of the time to support their huge bodies. Little brown bats conserve their energy except for the few hours each night when their insect prey are available, and platypuses eat a high energy crustacean diet and, therefore, probably do not need to spend as much time awake as many other mammals.

Rodents

A sleeping rat

A study conducted by Datta indirectly supports the idea that memory benefits from sleep.^[57] A box was constructed wherein a single rat could move freely from one end to the other. The bottom of the box was made of a steel grate. A light would shine in the box accompanied by a sound. After a five-second delay, an electrical shock would be applied. Once the shock commenced, the rat could move to the other end of the box, ending the shock immediately. The rat could also use the five-second delay to move to the other end of the box and avoid the shock entirely. The length of the shock never exceeded five seconds. This was repeated 30 times for half the rats. The other half, the control group, was placed in the same trial, but the rats were shocked regardless of their reaction. After each of the training sessions, the rat would be placed in a recording cage for six hours of polygraphic recordings. This process was repeated for three consecutive days. During the posttrial sleep recording session, rats spent 25.47% more time in REM sleep after learning trials than after control trials.

An observation of the Datta study is that the learning group spent 180% more time in SWS than did the control group during the post-trial sleep-recording session. This study shows that after spatial exploration activity, patterns of hippocampal place cells are reactivated during SWS following the experiment. Rats were run through a linear track using rewards on either end. The rats would then be placed in the track for 30 minutes to allow them to adjust (PRE), then they ran the track with reward-based training for 30 minutes (RUN), and then they were allowed to rest for 30 minutes.

During each of these three periods, EEG data were collected for information on the rats' sleep stages. The mean firing rates of hippocampal place cells during prebehavior SWS (PRE) and three ten-minute intervals in postbehavior SWS (POST) were calculated by averaging across 22 track-running sessions from seven rats. The results showed that ten minutes after the trial RUN session, there was a 12% increase in the mean firing rate of hippocampal place cells from the PRE level. After 20 minutes, the mean firing rate returned rapidly toward the PRE level. The elevated firing of hippocampal place cells during SWS after spatial exploration could explain why there were elevated levels of slow-wave sleep in Datta's study, as it also dealt with a form of spatial exploration.

In rats, sleep deprivation causes weight loss and reduced body temperature. Rats kept awake indefinitely develop skin lesions, hyperphagia, loss of body mass, hypothermia, and, eventually, fatal sepsis. Sleep deprivation also hinders the healing of burns on rats. When compared with a control group, sleep-deprived rats' blood tests indicated a 20% decrease in white blood cell count, a significant change in the immune system.

A 2014 study found that depriving mice of sleep increased cancer growth and dampened the immune system's ability to control cancers. The researchers found higher levels of M2 tumor-associated macrophages and TLR4 molecules in the sleep deprived mice and proposed this as the mechanism for increased susceptibility of the mice to cancer growth. M2 cells suppress the immune system and encourage tumour growth. TRL4 molecules are signalling molecules in the activation of the immune system.

Monotremes

Since monotremes (egg-laying mammals) are considered to represent one of the evolutionarily oldest groups of mammals, they have been subject to special interest in the study of mammalian sleep. As early studies of these animals could not find clear evidence for REM sleep, it was initially assumed that such sleep did not exist in monotremes, but developed after the monotremes branched off from the rest of the mammalian evolutionary line, and became a separate, distinct group. However, EEG recordings of the brain stem in monotremes show a firing pattern that is quite similar to the patterns seen in REM sleep in higher mammals. In fact, the largest amount of REM sleep known in any animal is found in the platypus. REM electrical activation does not extend at all to the forebrain in platypods, suggesting that they do not dream. The average sleep time of the platypus in a 24-hour period is said to be as long as 14 hours, though this may be because of their high-calorie crustacean diet.

Aquatic mammals

Northern sea lion pup with adult female and male, the largest of the eared seals. Habitat: the northern Pacific.

 

The consequences of falling into a deep sleep for marine mammalian species can be suffocation and drowning, or becoming easy prey for predators. Thus, dolphins, whales, and pinnipeds (seals) engage in unihemispheric sleep while swimming, which allows one brain hemisphere to remain fully functional, while the other goes to sleep. The hemisphere that is asleep alternates, so that both hemispheres can be fully rested. Just like terrestrial mammals, pinnipeds that sleep on land fall into a deep sleep and both hemispheres of their brain shut down and are in full sleep mode. Aquatic mammal infants do not have REM sleep in infancy; REM sleep increases as they age. 

Among others, seals and whales belong to the aquatic mammals. Earless seals and eared seals have solved the problem of sleeping in water via two different methods. Eared seals, like whales, show unihemispheric sleep. The sleeping half of the brain does not awaken when they surface to breathe. When one half of a seal's brain shows slow-wave sleep, the flippers and whiskers on its opposite side are immobile. While in the water, these seals have almost no REM sleep and may go a week or two without it. As soon as they move onto land they switch to bilateral REM sleep and NREM sleep comparable to land mammals, surprising researchers with their lack of "recovery sleep" after missing so much REM.

Cape fur seal, asleep in a zoo

Earless seals sleep bihemispherically like most mammals, under water, hanging at the water surface or on land. They hold their breath while sleeping under water, and wake up regularly to surface and breathe. They can also hang with their nostrils above water and in that position have REM sleep, but they do not have REM sleep underwater.

REM sleep has been observed in the pilot whale, a species of dolphin. Whales do not seem to have REM sleep, nor do they seem to have any problems because of this. One reason REM sleep might be difficult in marine settings is the fact that REM sleep causes muscular atony; that is to say, a functional paralysis of skeletal muscles that can be difficult to combine with the need to breathe regularly.

Conscious breathing cetaceans sleep but cannot afford to be unconscious for long, because they may drown. While knowledge of sleep in wild cetaceans is limited, toothed cetaceans in captivity have been recorded to exhibit unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS), which means they sleep with one side of their brain at a time, so that they may swim, breathe consciously and avoid both predators and social contact during their period of rest.

A 2008 study found that sperm whales sleep in vertical postures just under the surface in passive shallow 'drift-dives', generally during the day, during which whales do not respond to passing vessels unless they are in contact, leading to the suggestion that whales possibly sleep during such dives.

Unihemispherism

Unihemispheric sleep refers to sleeping with only a single cerebral hemisphere. The phenomenon has been observed in birds and aquatic mammals, as well as in several reptilian species (the latter being disputed: many reptiles behave in a way which could be construed as unihemispheric sleeping, but EEG studies have given contradictory results). Reasons for the development of unihemispheric sleep are likely that it enables the sleeping animal to receive stimuli—threats, for instance—from its environment, and that it enables the animal to fly or periodically surface to breathe when immersed in water. Only NREM sleep exists unihemispherically, and there seems to exist a continuum in unihemispheric sleep regarding the differences in the hemispheres: in animals exhibiting unihemispheric sleep, conditions range from one hemisphere being in deep sleep with the other hemisphere being awake to one hemisphere sleeping lightly with the other hemisphere being awake. If one hemisphere is selectively deprived of sleep in an animal exhibiting unihemispheric sleep (one hemisphere is allowed to sleep freely but the other is awoken whenever it falls asleep), the amount of deep sleep will selectively increase in the hemisphere that was deprived of sleep when both hemispheres are allowed to sleep freely. 

The neurobiological background for unihemispheric sleep is still unclear. In experiments on cats in which the connection between the left and the right halves of the brain stem has been severed, the brain hemispheres show periods of a desynchronized EEG, during which the two hemispheres can sleep independently of each other. In these cats, the state where one hemisphere slept NREM and the other was awake, as well as one hemisphere sleeping NREM with the other state sleeping REM were observed. The cats were never seen to sleep REM sleep with one hemisphere while the other hemisphere was awake. This is in accordance with the fact that REM sleep, as far as is currently known, does not occur unihemispherically.

The fact that unihemispheric sleep exists has been used as an argument for the necessity of sleep. It appears that no animal has developed an ability to go without sleep altogether. 

Hibernation

Animals that hibernate are in a state of torpor, differing from sleep. Hibernation markedly reduces the need for sleep, but does not remove it. Some hibernating animals end their hibernation a couple of times during the winter so that they can sleep. Hibernating animals waking up from hibernation often go into rebound sleep because of lack of sleep during the hibernation period. They are definitely well-rested and are conserving energy during hibernation, but need sleep for something else.

Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unihemispheric_slow-wave_sleep

A young House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) exhibits Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.

Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS) is sleep where one half of the brain rests while the other half remains alert. This is in contrast to normal sleep where both eyes are shut and both halves of the brain show unconsciousness. In USWS, also known as asymmetric slow-wave sleep, one half of the brain is in deep sleep, a form of non-rapid eye movement sleep and the eye corresponding to this half is closed while the other eye remains open. When examined by low-voltage electroencephalography (EEG), the characteristic slow-wave sleep tracings are seen from one side while the other side shows a characteristic tracing of wakefulness. The phenomenon has been observed in a number of terrestrial, aquatic and avian species. 

Unique physiology, including the differential release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, has been linked to the phenomenon. USWS offers a number of benefits, including the ability to rest in areas of high predation or during long migratory flights. The behaviour remains an important research topic because USWS is possibly the first animal behaviour which uses different regions of the brain to simultaneously control sleep and wakefulness. The greatest theoretical importance of USWS is its potential role in elucidating the function of sleep by challenging various current notions. Researchers have looked to animals exhibiting USWS to determine if sleep must be essential; otherwise, species exhibiting USWS would have eliminated the behaviour altogether through evolution.

The amount of time spent sleeping during the unihemispheric slow-wave stage is considerably inferior to the bilateral slow-wave sleep. In the past, aquatic animals, such as dolphins and seals, had to regularly surface in order to breathe and regulate body temperature. USWS might have been generated by the need of getting simultaneously these vital activities in addition to sleep.

Despite the reduced sleep quantity, species having USWS do not present limits at a behavioral or healthy level. Cetaceans, such as dolphins, show a preserved health as well as great memory skills. Indeed, cetaceans, seals and birds compensate for the lack of complete sleep thanks to their efficient immune system, brain plasticity, thermoregulation and restoration of brain energy metabolism.

Physiology

Polysomnogram demonstrating slow-wave sleep.
 

High amplitude EEG is highlighted in red.

 

Slow-wave sleep (SWS), also known as Stage 3, is characterized by a lack of movement and difficulty of arousal. Slow-wave sleep occurring in both hemispheres is referred to as bihemispheric slow-wave sleep (BSWS) and is common among most animals. Slow-wave sleep contrasts with rapid eye movement sleep (REM), which can only occur simultaneously in both hemispheres. In most animals, slow-wave sleep is characterized by high amplitude, low frequency EEG readings. This is also known as the desynchronized state of the brain, or deep sleep.

In USWS, only one hemisphere exhibits the deep sleep EEG while the other hemisphere exhibits an EEG typical of wakefulness with a low amplitude and high frequency. There also exist instances in which hemispheres are in transitional stages of sleep, but they have not been the subject of study due to their ambiguous nature. USWS represents the first known behavior in which one part of the brain controls sleep while another part controls wakefulness.

Generally, when the whole amount of sleeping of each hemisphere is summed, both hemispheres get equal amounts of USWS. However, when every single session is taken into account, a large asymmetry of USWS episodes can be observed. This information suggests that at one time the neural circuit is more active in one hemisphere than on the other one and vice versa the following time.

According to Fuller, awakening is characterized by high activity of neural groups that promote awakening: they activate the cortex as well as subcortical structures and simultaneously inhibit neural groups which promotes sleep. Therefore, sleep is defined by the opposite mechanism. It can be assumed, that cetaceans show a similar structure, but the neural groups are stimulated according to the need of each hemisphere. So, neural mechanisms that promote sleep are predominant in the sleeping hemisphere, while the ones that promote awakening are more active in the non-sleeping hemisphere.

Role of acetylcholine

Due to the origin of USWS in the brain, neurotransmitters are believed to be involved in its regulation. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine has been linked to hemispheric activation in northern fur seals. Researchers studied seals in controlled environments by observing behaviour as well as through surgically implanted EEG electrodes. Acetylcholine is released in nearly the same amounts per hemisphere in bilateral slow-wave sleep. However, in USWS, the maximal release of the cortical acetylcholine neurotransmitter is lateralized to the hemisphere exhibiting an EEG trace resembling wakefulness. The hemisphere exhibiting SWS is marked by the minimal release of acetylcholine. This model of acetylcholine release has been further discovered in additional species such as the bottlenose dolphin.

Eye opening

In domestic chicks and other species of birds exhibiting USWS, one eye remained open contra-lateral (on the opposite side) to the "awake" hemisphere. The closed eye was shown to be opposite the hemisphere engaging in slow-wave sleep. Learning tasks, such as those including predator recognition, demonstrated the open eye could be preferential. This has also been shown to be the favored behavior of belugas, although inconsistencies have arisen directly relating the sleeping hemisphere and open eye. Keeping one eye open aids birds in engaging in USWS while mid-flight as well as helping them observe predators in their vicinity.

Given that USWS is preserved also in blind animals or during a lack of visual stimuli, it cannot be considered as a consequence of keeping an eye open while sleeping. Furthermore, the open eye in dolphins does not forcibly activate the contralateral hemisphere. Although unilateral vision plays a considerable role in keeping active the contralateral hemisphere, it is not the motive power of USWS. Consequently, USWS might be generated by endogenous mechanisms.

Thermoregulation

Brain temperature has been shown to drop when a sleeping EEG is exhibited in one or both hemispheres. This decrease in temperature has been linked to a method to thermoregulate and conserve energy while maintaining the vigilance of USWS. The thermoregulation has been demonstrated in dolphins and is believed to be conserved among species exhibiting USWS.

Anatomical variations

Smaller corpus callosum

USWS requires hemispheric separation to isolate the cerebral hemispheres enough to ensure that the one can engage in SWS while the other is awake. The corpus callosum is the anatomical structure in the mammalian brain which allows for interhemispheric communication. Cetaceans have been observed to have a smaller corpus callosum when compared to other mammals. Similarly, birds lack a corpus callosum altogether and have only few, means of interhemispheric connections. Other evidence contradicts this potential role; sagittal transsections of the corpus callosum have been found to result in strictly bihemispheric sleep. As a result, it seems this anatomical difference, though well correlated, does not directly explain the existence of USWS.

Noradrenergic diffuse modulatory system variations

A promising method of identifying the neuroanatomical structures responsible for USWS is continuing comparisons of brains that exhibit USWS with those that do not. Some studies have shown induced asynchronous SWS in non-USWS-exhibiting animals as a result of sagittal transactions of subcortical regions, including the lower brainstem, while leaving the corpus callosum intact. Other comparisons found that mammals exhibiting USWS have a larger posterior commissure and increased decussation of ascending fibres from the locus coeruleus in the brainstem. This is consistent with the fact that one form for neuromodulation, the noradrenergic diffuse modulatory system present in the locus coeruleus, is involved in regulating arousal, attention, and sleep-wake cycles.

During USWS the proportion of noradrenergic secretion is asymmetric. It is indeed high in the awaken hemisphere and low in the sleeping one. The continuous discharge of noradrenergic neurons stimulates heat production: the awake hemisphere of dolphins shows a higher, but stable, temperature. On the contrary, the sleeping hemisphere reports a slightly lower temperature compared to the other hemisphere. According to researchers, the difference in hemispheric temperatures may play a role in shifting between the SWS and awaken status.

Complete crossing of the optic nerve

Complete crossing (decussation) of the nerves at the optic chiasm in birds has also stimulated research. Complete decussation of the optic tract has been seen as a method of ensuring the open eye strictly activates the contralateral hemisphere. Some evidence indicates that this alone is not enough as blindness would theoretically prevent USWS if retinal nerve stimuli were the sole player. However, USWS is still exhibited in blinded birds despite the absence of visual input.

Benefits

Many species of birds and marine mammals have advantages due to their unihemispheric slow-wave sleep capability, including, but not limited to, increased ability to evade potential predators and the ability to sleep during migration. Unihemispheric sleep allows visual vigilance of the environment, preservation of movement, and in cetaceans, control of the respiratory system.

Adaptation to high-risk predation

Most species of birds are able to detect approaching predators during unihemispheric slow-wave sleep. During the flight, birds maintain visual vigilance by utilizing USWS and by keeping one eye open. The utilization of unihemispheric slow-wave sleep by avian species is directly proportional to the risk of predation. In other words, the usage of USWS of certain species of birds increases as the risk of predation increases.

Survival of the fittest adaptation

The evolution of both cetaceans and birds may have involved some mechanisms for the purpose of increasing the likelihood of avoiding predators. Certain species, especially of birds, that acquired the ability to perform unihemispheric slow-wave sleep had an advantage and were more likely to escape their potential predators over other species that lacked the ability.

Regulation based on surroundings

Birds can sleep more efficiently with both hemispheres sleeping simultaneously (bihemispheric slow-wave sleep) when in safe conditions, but will increase the usage of USWS if they are in a potentially more dangerous environment. It is more beneficial to sleep using both hemispheres; however, the positives of unihemispheric slow-wave sleep prevail over its negatives under extreme conditions. While in unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, birds will sleep with one open eye towards the direction from which predators are more likely to approach. When birds do this in a flock, it's called the "group edge effect".

The mallard is one bird that has been used experimentally to illustrate the "group edge effect". Birds positioned at the edge of the flock are most alert, scanning often for predators. These birds are more at risk than the birds in the center of the flock and are required to be on the lookout for both their own safety and the safety of the group as a whole. They have been observed spending more time in unihemispheric slow-wave sleep than the birds in the center. Since USWS allows for the one eye to be open, the cerebral hemisphere that undergoes slow-wave sleep varies depending on the position of the bird relative to the rest of the flock. If the bird's left side is facing outward, the left hemisphere will be in slow-wave sleep; if the bird's right side is facing outward, the right hemisphere will be in slow-wave sleep. This is because the eyes are contra-lateral to the left and right hemispheres of the cerebral cortex. The open eye of the bird is always directed towards the outside of the group, in the direction from which predators could potentially attack.

Surfacing for air and pod cohesion

Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep seems to allow the simultaneous sleeping and surfacing to breathe of aquatic mammals including both dolphins and seals. Bottlenose dolphins are one specific species of cetaceans that have been proven experimentally to use USWS in order to maintain both swimming patterns and the surfacing for air while sleeping.

In addition, a reversed version of the "group edge effect" has been observed in pods of Pacific white-sided dolphins. Dolphins swimming on the left side of the pod has their right eyes open while dolphins swimming on the right side of the pod have their left eyes open. Unlike in some species of birds, the open eyes of these cetaceans are facing the inside of the group, not the outside. The dangers of possible predation do not play a significant role during USWS in Pacific white-sided dolphins. It has been suggested that this species utilizes this reversed version of the "group edge effect" in order to maintain pod formation and cohesion while maintaining unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.

Rest during long bird flights

While migrating, birds may undergo unihemispheric slow-wave sleep in order to simultaneously sleep and visually navigate flight. Certain species may thus avoid a need to make frequent stops along the way. Certain bird species are more likely to utilize USWS during soaring flight, but it is possible for birds to undergo USWS in flapping flight as well. Much is still unknown about the usage of unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, since the inter-hemispheric EEG asymmetry that is viewed in idle birds may not be equivalent to that of birds that are flying.

Species exhibiting USWS

Although humans show reduced left-hemisphere delta waves during slow-wave sleep in an unfamiliar bedchamber, this is not wakeful alertness of USWS, which is impossible in humans.

Aquatic mammals

Cetaceans

Of all the cetacean species, USWS has been found to be exhibited in the following species

• Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis)
• Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucus)
• Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates)
• Pacific white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens)
• Pilot whale (Globicephala scammoni)
• Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)

Pinnipeds

Though pinnipeds are capable of sleeping on either land or water, it has been found that pinnipeds that exhibit USWS do so at a higher rate while sleeping in water. Though no USWS has been observed in true seals, four different species of eared seals have been found to exhibit USWS including

• Northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus)

Significant research has been done illustrating that the northern fur seal can alternate between BSWS and USWS depending on its location while sleeping. While on land, 69% of all SWS is present bilaterally; however, when sleep takes place in water, 68% of all SWS is found with interhemispheric EEG asymmetry, indicating USWS.

• Southern sea lion (Otari bryonia)
• Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus)

Sirenia

In the final order of aquatic mammals, sirenia, experiments have only exhibited USWS in the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis).

Birds

Common swift

The common swift (Apus apus) was the best candidate for research aimed at determining whether or not birds exhibiting USWS can sleep in flight. The selection of the common swift as a model stemmed from observations elucidating the fact that the common swift left its nest at night, only returning in the early morning. Still, evidence for USWS is strictly circumstantial and based on the notion that if swifts must sleep to survive, they must do so via aerial roosting as little time is spent sleeping in a nest.

Multiple other species of birds have also been found to exhibit USWS including

• Common blackbird (Turdus merula)
• Domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus),
• Glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens)
• Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)
• Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos).
• Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus),
• Orange-fronted parakeet (Aratinga canicularis)
• Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus)
• White-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii)

Future research

Recent studies have illustrated that the white-crowned sparrow, as well as other passerines, have the capability of sleeping most significantly during the migratory season while in flight. However, the sleep patterns in this study were observed during migratory restlessness in captivity and might not be analogous to those of free-flying birds. Free-flying birds might be able to spend some time sleeping while in non-migratory flight as well when in the unobstructed sky as opposed to in controlled captive conditions. To truly determine if birds can sleep in flight, recordings of brain activity must take place during flight instead of after landing. A method of recording brain activity in pigeons during flight has recently proven promising in that it could obtain an EEG of each hemisphere but for relatively short periods of time. Coupled with simulated wind tunnels in a controlled setting, these new methods of measuring brain activity could elucidate the truth behind whether or not birds sleep during flight.

Additionally, based on research elucidating the role of acetylcholine in control of USWS, additional neurotransmitters are being researched to understand their roles in the asymmetric sleep model.