How about going to bed with the chickens?

Three Sleeping Chicks, Side View, Close Up

According to recent studies, one out of three of us in the United States is sleep deprived.  We stay up too late, we get up too early, our sleep is not “quality” sleep.  For whatever reasons, too many of us are unable to function at maximum efficiency because we just don’t get enough zzzz’s.

Too bad we can’t take lessons from chickens with regard to sleep.  But even going to bed at dusk every night as chickens do (because they cannot see in the dark so what-the heck), would only solve part of the problem. And only some of the year and only for those of us who live farthest from the equator.  Chickens, of course have those geographic problems, too, but sleeping after dark is only one way they get their required seven or eight hours.  Or whatever is the chicken equivalent of the human optimum.

Varied Sleeping Styles

First of all, each of a chicken’s eyes is ‘attached’ to the opposite side of its brain and each can work independently of the other.  That means that a chicken can be awake and asleep at the same time!  If you are a careful chicken-watcher (and who among us is not?) you have probably observed hens resting with one eye open and one eye shut.  The side of the brain with the open eye is staying alert for predators.  The opposite side of the brain, attached to the closed eye, is experiencing slow-wave sleep.  That’s the deepest kind of sleep — the sort called “Stage 3 Non-REM sleep” in humans.  The kind  we should have two hours of each night, but seldom do.

When chickens go to roost for the night, they close both eyes but only if there are chickens on either side of them.  Those at the ends of the roost keep their outer eye open, always on the watch for predators.  (I’m not sure how that works in the dark, though.  Another one of those chicken mysteries.)

Little Red Hen Snoozing In The Sun

I’ve often wondered why the girls are in one order on the roost when I go to tuck them in at dusk and in a different order if I arrive at the coop before wake-up call in the morning.  Apparently, they shift their roosting order during the night so that everyone gets a chance, some time or other, to be in the middle with both eyes closed.  I’m not clear if, in a small flock like ours, the end girls also have an opportunity to switch so they can get some slow-down with the other side of their brain as well.

Chickens can, apparently, become sleep deprived from things such as fireworks, barking dogs, or predators.  However, they can quickly make up for lost sleep by entering slow-wave sleep, sometimes even forgoing their monocular sleep and closing both eyes to rest both sides of their brain at once.  However,  it takes chickens only a few seconds of slow-wave sleep to feel refreshed while humans may need hours of extra sleep to make up for burning their candles at both ends — or their fireworks, as the case may be.

It puts a whole new meaning on “going to bed with the chickens,” doncha think?

 

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