Tag: Sleep

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To sleep… by Mike Fainzilber

micro-napping
the penguin
and the soldier

by Mike Fainzilber

This haiku deals with unique modes of sleep and sleep deprivation and relates to a study on nesting penguins in the wild, where the authors used remote monitoring techniques to determine sleep patterns. They found that wild chinstrap penguins sleep over 10,000 times a day, for an average of 4 seconds each time – totaling ~11 hours sleep per 24. This is an extreme case of microsleeps, interspersed by brief awake periods, and may help the penguins to guard their eggs during breeding season in the penguin colony. The parallels with the fitful short sleeps of a human soldier are highlighted in the haiku.

Further reading:

‘Nesting chinstrap penguins accrue large quantities of sleep through seconds-long microsleeps’, 2023, Libourel, P-A., et al. Science, available: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adh0771

‘Penguins snatch seconds-long microsleeps’, 2023, Harding, C.D. & Vyazovskiy, V.V., Science, available: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adl2398

Author bio:

Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social .

Read more sciku by Mike: ‘The deepest shade’, ‘Jellyfish’, and ‘In the Deep’, and ‘The Blood and the Run’.

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Brumation by Tom Lagasse

A winter slumber
Longing for thirst to be quenched
The reptile brain wakes

by Tom Lagasse

My wife and I were walking near a pond and didn’t know if snakes hibernated or not. After a quick check, we learned that mammals hibernate and reptiles brumate.

Further reading:

‘Dormancy’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormancy

‘Brumation’, Wiktionary article: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/brumation

Author Bio:

Tom’s writing has appeared in literary journals, both in print and online, and in anthologies. He lives in Bristol, Connecticut, USA.

You can find more of Tom’s writing and poems here: www.tlagasse.com and can follow him on social media on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/tjlagasse), X (Twitter) (@tomlagasse) and Instagram (@tom_lagasse).

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Supine Risks

Supine position,
dreaming towards tragedy.
The risk of stillbirth.

New research has found that the risks of stillbirth are higher when the mother falls asleep lying on her back. Cronin et al (2019) analysed sleeping position and resulting birth success. Whilst no difference was found between going-to-sleep on the left or right side, the researchers found evidence that the supine going-to-sleep position is a contributing factor for late stillbirth. In fact, they suggest that if every pregnant woman of 28 weeks gestation and beyond settled to sleep on her side the number of late stillbirths could be reduced by 5.8%.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2019.03.014

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Parental problem

Lack of sleep presents

a parental problem. Sleep

well to parent well.

 

All parents know what it’s like to miss out on sleep, yet it appears that a lack of quality sleep is associated with parenting ability. Tu et al (2018) found evidence that mothers who reported a lack of quality sleep were more permissive parents to their adolescent children – that is parenting marked by lax or inconsistent discipline.

The findings also indicate that this might be particularly relevant for African-American mothers and mothers from socioeconomically disadvantaged households. Is this a vicious cycle – tired mothers struggling to enforce consistent discipline and ultimately losing sleep because of it?

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12676

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Sleep disruption

Modern screens can cause

sleep disruption if used late.

Weekends may top up?

 

Research suggests that sleep duration is important for health, making maintaining decent sleeping patterns important for a healthy lifestyle. Chinoy et al (2018) have found evidence that the use of electronic tablet devices with light-emitting screens close to bedtime can result in later bedtimes and disrupted circadian rhythms and result in lower alertness in the morning.

Many of us like a lie in at the weekend, as if we are making up for the week gone by. Research by Åkerstedt et al (2018) studying over 40,000 subjects across 13 years suggests that longer weekend sleep may indeed compensate for shorter weekday sleep.

Original research:

Chinoy et al (2018): https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.14814/phy2.13692

Åkerstedt et al (2018): https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12712

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My dreams escape me

My dreams escape me.

Vitamin B6 could help

my recollection.

 

It’s often hard to remember the details of dreams when we wake – some people even keep notebooks by their beds to scribble their dreams down whilst they are fresh in their memories.

A study by Aspy et al (2018) has now found evidence to suggest that taking vitamin B6 before bed for 5 days increased dream recall ability (although not dream vividness, bizarreness or colour). Interestingly taking a range of B vitamins did not affect dream recall and even resulted in participants having a lower sleep quality and feeling more tired.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0031512518770326