
Mysteries of elephant sleep revealed - manojr
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39126993
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taneq
> "We had the idea that elephants should be the shortest sleeping mammal
> because they're the largest," said Prof Manger. "Why this occurs, we're not
> really sure."

Off the cuff, probably because of the squared-cubed law? Small mammals need to
sleep a lot to conserve energy. Larger mammals have a greater reserve of
energy for their size and so can afford to remain non-dormant for a greater
proportion of time.

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idlewords
That's making a lot of assumptions about the purpose of sleep. Why all the REM
weirdness and altered state of consciousness if it's just about conserving
energy?

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taneq
It's not _just_ about conserving energy, but it seems safe to assume it's
_also_ about conserving energy.

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serg_chernata
"How elephants survive on so little sleep remains a mystery."

So, what mysteries have been revealed exactly?

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sametmax
Yeah click bait at its best

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muffinatop
That's why elephants are so pissed off all the time. If I only slept for 2
hours per day, I would charge at anything showing up next to me. :D

