Animals that sleep with their eyes open, characteristics and curiosities of species capable of particular habits and gestures out of the ordinary.
Very often, animals are endowed with very particular characteristics and habits but almost never useless or limiting, on the contrary, they are peculiarities that make them unique.
In this article, we will devote ourselves in particular to animals that sleep with their eyes open. We are going to understand the reason for this gesture, for each of these species.
Animals that sleep with their eyes open
Animals that sleep with their eyes open, species capable of rather curious habits, for which they are, however, remembered.
In general, animals, act instinctively and very often only out of fear and not out of aggression assume certain behaviors that can be misunderstood.
Today, we are going to find out which are animals that sleep with their eyes open and the reason for this gesture. Let’s discover them together.
Here are the animals that sleep with their eyes open:
Whales can rest in both vertical and horizontal positions, but that’s not the only curiosity about them and how they sleep.
Greenland whale
Many times they stay afloat by letting themselves be carried or sleep while with a mate and swim slowly.
Then, as we said another characteristic of these large marine mammals is the ability to sleep with one eye open.
This is referred to as « unihemispheric sleep, » which is the ability to let only one cerebral hemisphere sleep at a time in order to continue to remain alert to vital matters, such as a predator attack may be.
Although, we are talking about animals as large as 24 meters, such as the blue whale.
Oxen
Oxen like cows also sleep with one eye open.
Sleep is very important for the proper functioning of the human brain, but instead, for some animals it is the opposite, sleeping little makes them stay fit.
They break up the hours of sleep, the ox for example lies down only after digestion and rests 4 hours and does so even with open eyes.
Despite being animals of about 800kg they are perfectly able to handle these rhythms.
Dolphins
Dolphins are perpetually on the alert, they are sentinels that never dismount.
And, even while they sleep, they are able to scan the environment with their biosonar.
Dolphins, sleep with only one half of their brain at a time and one eye open. They have, that is, developed what is called « alternate unihemispheric sleep ».
When a cerebral hemisphere shows the typical electroencephalographic tracing of the sleep, the other hemisphere shows that of the wakefulness, and vice versa.
This characteristic of theirs is fundamental, in order to be able to breathe, surfacing, and monitor the surrounding environment, avoiding close encounters with hungry predators.
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Snakes
Snakes can be quite lazy. They spend most days dozing to conserve energy for molting.
Snake
Many species of snakes are nocturnal, so they sleep during the day and stay awake throughout the night.
Snakes do not have what we consider eyelids. Instead, they have something called brille attached to each eye.
The brille is also known as the ocular scale, it protects the snake’s eyes from dust and dirt and gives them a « glassy-eyed » appearance.