Sleep Flying Many bird species fly countless miles for days and weeks at a time in order to reach mo

Sleep FlyingMany bird species fly countless miles for days and weeks at a time in order to reach more suitable terrain during their annual migrations. Sometimes without ever coming in for a landing! This has confused scientists or decades. With no way to know what goes on in the sky, no one has been able to determine how the birds rest over such long journeys.New research has been conducted measuring the brain activity of frigate birds using a small device they call the “flight data recorder.” Attached to fifteen adult female frigate birds, it was able to detect slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep. The results showed that not only can these birds shut down one hemisphere of their brain during flight but they can actually rest both hemispheres at the same time! Ducks have long been observed resting one side of their brains on land, always staying alert for predators. Dolphins are also known to rest one hemisphere at a time while continuing to swim. Even humans do this when sleeping in a new location. Having both sides of the brain resting at the same time while flying in the air is something else altogether!The research was performed over a period of ten days, covering more than 10,000 feet (3,000 kilometers) of flight, all while a GPS tracked position and altitude. The birds landed and were allowed to rest before the team of researchers collected the devices for analysis.As expected, the frigate birds were awake for most of the day actively searching for fish. Once the sun set, however, it appears the birds would switch to slow wave sleep for several minutes at a time all while continuing to fly above the water. During this behavior, the recordings revealed that the birds were usually circling in high rising air currents. It was also recorded that the hemisphere connected to the eye facing the direction of the turn was kept a bit more alert suggesting that they were able to see where they were going while napping.Lead researcher, Niels Rattenborg, stated, “The frigate birds may be keeping an eye out for other birds to prevent collisions much like ducks keep an eye out for predators.”Since the devices also recorded both sides of the birds’ brains going to sleep at the same time, this suggests they were able to maintain aerodynamic control while their entire brain is sleeping. The birds even slipped into brief periods of REM sleep while airborne. This only lasted several seconds and the only noticeable muscle relaxation of the bird was slight drooping of the head.Another surprise of the study revealed that the frigate birds slept less than an hour every day, 42 minutes on average, during these flights, which is less than 10% of the time normally spent sleeping while on land. We have yet to figure out how their bodies cope with the lack of sleep during such flights.“Why we, and many other animals, suffer dramatically from sleep loss whereas some birds are able to perform adaptively on far less sleep remains a mystery,” Rattenborg added.Sleeping has forever been something of a mystery. Will we ever find out all of the answers!?–MiImage Credit –http://bit.ly/2aD6j9GSource –http://go.nature.com/2aJBei9 -- source link
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