Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS

Fur seals can go weeks without REM sleep

Animals switch off need for restorative sleep phase while at sea without experiencing any apparent ill effects.
  1. Alex Fox
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) can forgo rapid eye movement sleep for up to two weeks while at sea with no visible hardship, according to new research. This flies in the face of previous studies on land mammals such as rats, in which depriving the animals of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep for a week or more led to problems including weight loss, hypothermia and eventually, death.

Access options

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05353-0

References

  1. Lyamin, O. I. et al. Curr. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.022 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Siegel, J. M. et al. Nature 437, 1264-1271 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Wehr, T. A. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev 16, 379-397 (1992).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links