Sleep Function

Three-toed sloths, for example, sleep far less than once thought. | A technology for recording brainwaves in wild animals could awaken a more sophisticated understanding of the function of sleep. Studies using miniature sleep-recording devices known as neurologgers have already challenged several long-held beliefs about the sleeping habits of sloths and birds. | Now, John Lesku of La Trobe University in Melbourne and his colleagues are using neurologgers to investigate whether light pollution interferes with the circadian rhythms of tammar wallabies in Australia. | And male sandpipers can go almost entirely without sleep during the three-week breeding season, helping maximise their success at that time.