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Migrating Birds Take Hundreds of Powernaps.

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the checking-eyelids-for-leaks dept.

Ant writes "MSNBC reports that to help make up for sleep lost during marathon night flights, migratory birds take hundreds of powernaps during the day, each lasting only a few seconds, a new study suggests. Every autumn, Swainson's thrushes fly up to 3,000 miles from their breeding grounds in northern Canada and Alaska to winter in Central and South America. Come spring, the birds make the long trek back. The birds fly mostly at night and often for long hours at a time, leaving little time for sleep."

6 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Not convinced by tygerstripes · · Score: 3, Interesting
    How is this different from when you keep nodding your head and waking up when you're very, very tired but doing something critical/dangerous? Hasn't everyone, to their horror, experienced this when driving? Or when you're in a lecture, your head drops, and you jerk awake with an embarrassing snorting noise?

    I wouldn't consider this to be an impressive evolved behaviour, so much as just what happens when a bird in flight is pushing itself to its limits of endurance. There just aren't many animals other than humans and avians that ever find themselves having to maintain such prolonged alertness to survive, so this is seen as a phenomenon. Try keeping squirrels on a wire over a pit of spikes or something, and you'll probably observe the same behaviour.

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  2. @#$%^ Buzzwords by hcdejong · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How, exactly, is a 'powernap' any different from a generic nap? I expect Bullshit Bingo from the WSJ, not from scientists.

  3. Uberman by Wooden7Dummy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Reminds me of the Uberman sleep method.

  4. How do they avoid crashing? by giafly · · Score: 4, Interesting

    FTA, these swallows sleep for "9 seconds on average".
    If one stops flying completely for 9 seconds, the approximate distance it would fall is s = ut + 1/2at**2 ... 0+1/2*32*9*9 feet ... 1296 feet.
    But the barn swallow typically migrates within within 100 feet of the ground .
    So how do they avoid crashing?

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  5. Re:Why they sleep only a few seconds by Archibald+Buttle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    :-)

    Not all that far from the truth.

    Albatross (and related species) spend virtually their whole lives at sea, returning to land only to breed. They fish for food, but can't sleep on the sea surface because they'd get caught by preditors (some shark and whale species, sealions, etc). Their only opportunity for sleep is whilst they're flying - so they nap for a few seconds whilst they're gliding.

  6. Did the same thing as a student-Spend &' sleep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "When I was a student I also took several power-naps during the day to make up for lack of sleep.

    They were called lectures."

    Very expensive naps.