One of the pigeons in the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology study, taking a 'power' nap.
German researchers say they have observed birds using the same technique as humans to compensate for sleep loss — power napping.
Birds are the only animal group other than mammals to display both dreamless slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep, which is associated with dreaming in mammals.
Sleep researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology prevented pigeons from taking their usual late afternoon naps, but allowed them to sleep normally overnight.
They later observed that the birds recovered from that sleep deprivation by increasing the amount of slow waves generated during slow-wave sleep, but not the time they spent in it.
In other words, the pigeons slept more deeply to make up for the loss of their “siesta” without having to spend more time sleeping.
Photo: Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
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