Do Spiders Sleep As Humans Do?
Experts Weigh In On New Study that perhaps we didn’t need
The study reveals jumping spiders might experience REM sleep through leg twitching, and eye flickering just like us!
Spiders might keep some arachnophobes up at night — but do the creepy crawlers get any shuteye themselves?
A new study leads some scientists to believe spiders may snooze just as humans do.
The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), involved monitoring the behaviour of baby jumping spiders at night.
The footage revealed movements often experienced during normal sleep cycles, including limb twitching, leg curling and eye flickering.
In humans, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is the active phase of sleep closely linked to dreaming, according to the Associated Press.
The study claimed that retinal movement in the spiders was consistent, including regular durations and intervals — much like humans.
Even though a spider’s resting state looks a lot like the REM sleep of other species such as cats and dogs, researchers have yet to determine if the bugs are sleeping.
