MadSci Network: Evolution |
John: You pose an interesting question which people in many disciplines have wrestled with for many years. Hypotheses include: a restorative process of mental and physical recuperation; a process which enables one to consolidate memories; and subconscious conflict resolution during REM sleep; and/or all of these. Interestingly enough, humans sleep less than most primates. While we sleep about 8 hours daily, the owl monkey sleeps about 17 hours, chimpanzees sleep around 10 hours daily, and gorillas take around 12 hours daily. Check out The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution edited by Jones, Martin and Pilbeam. They briefly deal with the topic of sleep. David S. Smerken, Ph.D.
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