Survival Theories of sleep

Question 1

What do the survival theories of sleep propose?

Answer 1

That organisms sleep to conserve energy, and to protect themselves through inactivity during the parts of the day when they are most vulnerable
ie. sleep to survive

Question 2

What are the 3 main posits for this theory?

Answer 2

Sleep depends on an animal’s vulnerability to predators
Sleep depends on the ability to find food
Sleep conserves energy and aids survival

Question 3

Explain how vulnerability to predators affects sleep.

Answer 3

More predators/difficult to hide means less sleep - they need to escape quickly.
Also, sleep reduces vulnerability to predators by reducing attention gained from interacting with environment.

Question 4

Explain how the ability to find food affects sleep.

Answer 4

Grazing animals spend more time awake than animals that can easily find filling food - because they need to eat more to live.

Question 5

Explain how sleep aids survival by conserves energy.

Answer 5

It lowers metabolism (by 10% in humans)

Question 6

How can sleep be adaptive?

Answer 6

It helps us meet the demands of our environment.

Question 7

Explain how humans have evolved to sleep at night.

Answer 7

Humans rely greatly on vision and without light at night and no night vision, they were more vulnerable to harm and predators at night.

Question 8

Name a criticism of the survival theories of sleep.

Answer 8

Doesn’t consider that sleep puts the organism at greater risk: it will take them longer to respond to danger.