Penguin Nap Is the New Cat Nap
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It can be a battle trying to stay engaged through a long meeting or monotonous task once that afternoon slump hits. A short nap – often referred to as a cat nap – sounds ideal before pushing through your later tasks. But for highly preyed upon species like the chinstrap penguin, a 20-minute nap may have fatal consequences. To combat this, they rest via thousands of daily “microsleeps” instead.
A group of neuroscience researchers from France, Germany, and Korea recently published a sleep study of 14 nesting chinstrap penguins existing under constant threat of their avian predator, the brown skua, to understand how these Antarctic penguins can protect themselves and successfully breed while sleeping greater than 11 hours a day.
Sleep data like electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyogram (EMG) activity were collected to quantify brain and muscle activity, alongside other characteristics like posture, body movements, and location as the nesting penguins engaged in slow-wave sleep (SWS).
These results provided a detailed glimpse into the habits of these unique sleepers. Mates took turns foraging while the other stayed back to incubate and defend their eggs for an average shift of 22.06 hours, engaging in 14.92 hours of SWS with an average sleep length of under 4 seconds. Overall, this equates to a rate of >10,000 daily microsleeps. This extreme sleep technique allows for excellent energy recovery and protection, allowing foraging penguins to dive an average depth of 52.75 meters and travel 34.01 km per day, and nesting penguins to remain vigilant against predators without sacrificing their sleep. In total, at 14.92 hours of SWS daily, penguins are getting almost twice as much sleep as the average adult human. Are you jealous yet?
Author Bio
Jane Arterberry is working on her undergraduate degree in biology with a chemistry minor at Portland State University Honors College. She is a member of PSU’s eXtreme Virus Lab, a BUILD EXITO trainee, Knight Cancer Institute intern, and is interested in immunology, genetics, and molecular biology. Her favorite things include watching live music, petting everyone’s dogs, and making academia a more inclusive place.
