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Encyclopedia of Neuroscience pp 3726–3729Cite as

Sleep Phylogeny

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Definition

Sleep phylogeny refers to the variation in the nature and amount of sleep across species.

Characteristics

A primary motivation for the study of sleep in various animals is to gain some insight into the function(s) of sleep. What aspects of sleep, if any, are present in all mammals? What aspects of sleep differ between animals? Why are there two kinds of sleep, REM sleep and nonREM sleep?

The amount and nature of sleep are correlated with age, body size and ecological variables, including life in the terrestrial vs. aquatic environment, diet and the safety of the sleeping site. The sleep phylogeny literature suggests that sleep reduces activity to the amount needed for feeding and species reproduction, and maximizes energy conservation, thereby furthering genetic survival. Theories of REM sleep function have suggested that in addition to these functions, this state may have a role in periodic brain activation during sleep, in localized brain and body recuperative processes...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Sleep Research 151A3, Department of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine, Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, North Hills, CA, USA

    Jerome M. Siegel

Authors
  1. Jerome M. Siegel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Marc D. Binder

  2. Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Graduate School of Medicine University of Tokyo Hongo, Bunkyo‐ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Nobutaka Hirokawa

  3. Göttingen, Germany

    Uwe Windhorst

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg

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Siegel, J.M. (2009). Sleep Phylogeny. In: Binder, M.D., Hirokawa, N., Windhorst, U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_5447

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