“With the exception of death and taxes, nothing is guaranteed,” Benjamin Franklin stated. Of course, he neglected to mention another human certainty: sleep. Humans all sleep, however some sleep better than others. Do all animals, however, sleep?
“It all relies on your definition of sleep,” says Franks, an Imperial College London researcher. “How would you respond if I asked you if all animals are conscious?” For two reasons, Franks compares the two phenomena. Sleep is a first-person experience, much like wakefulness. We still don’t have a good justification for either of them to exist.
According to Franks, we may reasonably assume that all humans sleep, as well as most animals because comparable brain patterns and behaviors can be observed using an EEG. He adds, however, that extrapolating beyond mammals is challenging. This is partly due to technical limitations—you can’t measure EEG in flies.
We’re also perplexed by the fact that we have yet to show what sleep is for. We know that sleep is necessary for humans, that it is required to keep the brain healthy, and that it cannot be achieved while we are awake. But, as Franks says, this may not be the case for a fly, whose brain is a more passive structure: “It’s possible that the benefits a fly derives from sleep are considerably different from the benefits humans derive.”
All animals appear to have circadian rhythms, which are biological changes dependent on the Earth’s 24-hour light-dark cycle. Our sleep cycles are regulated by them, and the impact may even be shown in blind animals. All animals, according to Franks, have a time of quiescence each day, during which they move less. “The question is whether they are obtaining sleep in the sense that we understand it in humans.”
It may never be known if all animals sleep—and whether they experience it in the same way we do—as it is with awareness.
Identifying sleep’s underlying processes
Franks and his colleagues explored the basic regulation mechanisms of sleep as part of the EU-funded DNCSS project. They looked examined the brain activity of mice to learn more about the occurrences at the circuitry level.
Our understanding of which brain areas are involved in sleep regulation has considerably increased as a result of this research. The scientists discovered that sleep-related neurons are present throughout the brain, not just infrequently identified locations like the hypothalamus or brainstem.
The researchers expect that by better understanding these circuits, they would be able to better grasp the links between sleep disorders and illnesses like dementia.
How to Sleep Better
Franks reveals that people pay attention to two essential aspects in order to achieve a better night’s sleep. The first is temperature: research conducted at Franks’ lab found that taking a warm bath before bedtime causes the brain’s circuitry to activate, causing you to fall asleep faster.
Light is the second, and most crucial, factor. This entails not just keeping your bedroom dark, but also getting enough light during the day to keep your circadian cycles in check.
“The desire is so great that sleep is actually unavoidable,” Franks says of individuals who are having trouble falling asleep. And it’s a lot better than death and taxes.
