These nesting penguins nod off over 10,000 times a day, for seconds at a time

Nesting chinstrap penguins take nodding off to the extreme. The birds briefly dip into a slumber many thousands of times per day, sleeping for only seconds at a time. 

The penguins’ breeding colonies are noisy and stressful places, and threats from predatory birds and aggressive neighbor penguins are unrelenting. The extremely disjointed sleep schedule may help the penguins to protect their young while still getting enough shut-eye, researchers report in the Dec. 1 Science

The findings add to evidence “that avian sleep can be very different from the sleep of land mammals,” says UCLA neuroscientist Jerome Siegel. 

.email-conversion { border: 1px solid #ffcccb; color: white; margin-top: 50px;

→ Continue reading at Science News

More from author

Related posts

Advertisment

Latest posts

How This Couple Is Helping Friends And Families In Tough Times

The phone rings. The text pops up. The email hits your inbox. You're scrolling on social media, and you see the news. Something bad...

Judge blocks Montana’s TikTok ban from taking effect on January 1 | CNN Business

CNN  —  A federal judge on Thursday temporarily halted Montana’s groundbreaking statewide TikTok ban, which was set to...

Federal judge blocks Montana’s TikTok ban before it takes effect

Enlarge this image A federal judge has halted a law in...