Penguins found to nap ‘thousands’ of times a day

The Independent

New research has found that penguins could be napping 'thousands' of times every day for just seconds at a time, allowing them to sleep for 11 hours while still being able to guard their eggs. Source: ITV News

Transcript

00:00 Instead of snoozing for hours, they have around 10,000 micro-sleeps a day, with each one lasting

00:08 just four seconds.

00:10 Scientists say the naps have been developed to help protect their nests from predators.

00:14 This is a trade-off between remaining vigilant to protect their eggs against some birds or

00:23 the birds that would like to catch the eggs, and having some sleep.

00:27 So it's a way to sleep and being awake at the same time.

00:29 This is what we believe.

00:30 What do you think we as humans can learn from this?

00:35 There's no quick fix for that.

00:37 We don't quite have a bird brain.

00:38 A bit more brain, more problems, I guess.

00:40 So we wouldn't really be able to benefit from it that way.

00:43 But it has proved more interesting aspects for further studies on penguins on its own,

00:47 how they manage to survive in such extreme conditions and with so little rest.

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