What Crouching Cockroaches Tell Us About Why We Sleep

The Crux
By Laura Sanders
Sep 4, 2018 7:00 PMMay 21, 2019 4:04 PM
bugs teach us about why we sleep
While in “profound rest,” bees’ antennae gradually droop down and slowly sway back and forth, a 1988 study of bees found.(Credit: C. HELFRICH-FÖRSTER / AR ENTOMOLOGY 2018 (MODIFIED FROM Walter Kaiser / Journal of Comparative Physiology A 1988))

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If you watch an exhausted baby carefully, you may be able to see gravity tug heavy eyelids down. Likewise, a sleeping honeybee’s usually perky antennae droop (as illustrated here, the top row shows various views of a honeybee awake, the bottom row shows the insect at rest).

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