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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."

8 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. this early in the morning by yincrash · · Score: 5, Funny

    At 4:20 in the morning, I could a couple of power naps as well.

  2. Why they sleep only a few seconds by Jamu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Flap flap flap
    Must stay awake...
    Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
    AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm falling!
    Flapflapflapflapflap
    Flap flap flap
    Must stay awake...

    --
    Who ordered that?
  3. Did the same thing as a student by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  4. Yep... by DuranDuran · · Score: 5, Funny

    > 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

    Yep, just like my crazy uncle. But instead of gliding, he uses the cruise control.

    --
    "You can justify anything by putting it in quotes, adding a famous name and making it a sig" - Albert Einstein
  5. Humans Too by HoneyBeeSpace · · Score: 5, Informative

    Humans do the same thing. The term is "microsleep", lasting from 2 to 30 seconds or so, often with eyes open. A quick search returns hundreds of PDFs on the phenomenon.

    As usual, there is a WikiPedia entry (not very useful) and this site too: http://www.sleepdex.org/microsleep.htm

    Hmmm... people do it. Birds do it. I'll be shocked when the research is published that fish do it too.

    --
    Space and Computers.
  6. Re:Not convinced by tygerstripes · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't be stupid. Alligators can't balance on a wire.

    --
    Meta will eat itself
  7. Re:How do they avoid crashing? by kfg · · Score: 5, Informative

    But the barn swallow typically migrates within within 100 feet of the ground .

    Even more impressive is the behavior of the Wandering Albatross which can fly for days at a time within a wingspan of ocean waves (albeit their wingspan is about 10 feet). They can do this even during a full gale.

    So how do they avoid crashing?

    They soar. Wings generate lift just because they're there and under the right conditions a bird might well increase its altitude while napping.

    As a wave moves through the air, or air moves over a hill, it compresses and rises. Thus a sleeping bird may find itself safely carried over variations in surface hight without having to do a thing. It's called "slope soaring."

    KFG

  8. Urban legend alert by Falkkin · · Score: 5, Informative

    Urban legend -- albatrosses sleep on the surface, not in flight.

    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatross#Morphology_ and_flight