Baby dolphins sleep while swimming June 29, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia , trackbackI have heard of scuba divers sleeping whilst on deco, and I have seen many scuba divers asleep ten minutes after getting back onboard the dive boat, but that is nothing compared to baby dolphins, who regularly sleep whilst swimming, says an Italian research team;
“During their first year of life, young bottlenose dolphins sleep exclusively while swimming and, like all young mammals, have irregular sleep patterns, distributed both through the day and at night, for around 12 hours in total,” said the research team, Guido Gnone, Tiziana Moriconi and Giorgia Gambini .
“As they grow older, dolphins tend to reduce their hours of daytime sleep, while night sleep stabilizes at seven to eight hours .
“This development in sleep patterns reflects that of land mammals, including that of human beings” .
The study overturns the findings of research published last year by US and Russian experts, which concluded that the constant movement of newborn dolphins and their mothers meant the mammals were barely sleeping .
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