Evolution of Sleep
Sleep is very ancient. In the electroencephalographic sense we share it with all the primates and almost all the other mammals and birds: it may extend back as far as the reptiles. There is some evidence that the two types of sleep, dreaming and dreamless, depend on the life-style of the animal, and that predators are statistically much more likely to dream than prey, which are in turn much more likely to experience dreamless sleep. In dream sleep, the animal is powerfully immobilized and remarkably unresponsive to external stimuli. Dreamless sleep is much shallower, and we have all witnessed cats or dogs cocking their ears to a sound when apparently fast asleep. The fact that deep dream sleep is rare among prey today seems clearly to be a product of natural selection, and it makes sense that today, when sleep is highly evolved, the stupid animals are less frequently immobilized by deep sleep than the smart ones. But why should they sleep deeply at all? Why should a state of such deep immobilization ever have evolved? Perhaps one useful hint about the original function of sleep is to be found in the fact that dolphins and whales and aquatic mammals in general seem to sleep very little. There is, by and large, no place to hide in the ocean. Could it be that, rather than increasing an animals vulnerability, the function of sleep is to decrease it? Wilse Webb of the University of Florida and Ray Meddis of London University have suggested this to be the case. It is conceivable that animals who are too stupid to be quiet on their own initiative are, during periods of high risk, immobilized by the implacable arm of sleep. The point seems particularly clear for the young of predatory animals. This is an interesting notion and probably at least partly true.
职称英语考试理工类b级近义词推荐(1)
职称英语等级考试理工类AB级近义词
职称英语考试理工类词汇选项真题精选(5)
职称英语考试理工类词汇选项练习题(5)
职称英语考试理工类复习必备同义词(4)
职称英语理工类词汇选项考点精练(2)
职称英语理工类:词汇选项精选习题(3)
职称英语考试理工类重点词汇
职称英语理工类词汇选项练习题(3)
职称英语理工类考试复习之词汇选项练习题(3)
职称英语考试理工类近义词辅导(5)
职称英语考试理工类b级近义词推荐(4)
职称英语考试理工类词汇选项练习题(6)
职称英语理工类B级词汇选项练习(5)
职称英语理工类:词汇选项精选习题(5)
职称英语理工类考试复习之同义词组辨析(3)
职称英语理工类B级词汇选项练习(4)
职称英语考试理工类复习必备同义词(5)
职称英语理工类词汇选项练习题(1)
职称英语理工类考试复习之同义词组辨析(1)
职称英语理工类词汇选项练习题(2)
职称英语理工类:词汇选项精选习题(2)
职称英语考试理工类词汇选项真题精选(1)
职称英语考试理工类词汇选项练习题(7)
职称英语考试理工类近义词辅导(4)
职称英语考试理工类词汇选项练习题(2)
职称英语考试理工类词汇选项练习题(9)
职称英语理工类B级词汇选项练习(1)
职称英语考试理工类词汇选项练习题(1)
职称英语考试理工类近义词辅导(2)
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |