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Sleep can follow a physiological or behavioral definition. In the physiological sense, sleep is a state characterized by reversible unconsciousness, special brainwave patterns, sporadic eye movement, loss of muscle tone (possibly with some exceptions; see below regarding the sleep of birds and of aquatic mammals), and a compensatory increase following deprivation of the state, this last known ...
As hibernation is a seasonal response, the movement of the ancestor of birds and mammals onto land introduced them to seasonal pressures that would eventually become hibernation. [46] This is true for all clades of animals that undergo winter dormancy; the more prominent the seasons are, the longer the dormant period tends to be on average.
This adaptation of increasing body temperature to forage has been observed in small nocturnal mammals when they first wake up in the evening. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ] Although homeothermy lends advantages such as increased activity levels, small mammals and birds maintaining an internal body temperature spend up to 100 times more energy in low ...
Although relatively uncommon, a small number of mammals aestivate. [17] Animal physiologist Kathrin Dausmann of Philipps University of Marburg , Germany, and coworkers presented evidence in a 2004 edition of Nature that the Malagasy fat-tailed dwarf lemur hibernates or aestivates in a small tree hole for seven months of the year. [ 18 ]
Overwintering is the process by which some organisms pass through or wait out the winter season, or pass through that period of the year when "winter" conditions (cold or sub-zero temperatures, ice, snow, limited food supplies) make normal activity or even survival difficult or near impossible. In some cases "winter" is characterized not ...
Circannual rhythms are evident in a range of organisms, including birds, mammals, fish, and insects, facilitating their adaptation to the cyclical nature of their habitats. Circannual cycles can be defined by three primary characteristics: persistence in the absence of apparent time cues, the capacity for phase shifting, and stability against ...
The desire for, or occurrence of, more sleep during winter may have to do with how light fluctuates throughout the year, or with the behavioral and mental health changes that can result.
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature, thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation.