As far as sleep comparison is concerned, it would be intriguing to note if some animals would follow the same sleep patterns that we do. Apparently thanks to the continued research of most groups such as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, Calif., there is a bird that has been discovered to sleep like us. The said bird is called the Zebra Finch, a songbird that has episodes of rapid-eye-movement sleep and slow-wave sleep as well as transition stages and quick spikes, all reminiscent of mammalian sleep patterns.

As for the zebra finch results, he said, they show that a cortex isn’t required to have such structured sleep, and they also raise evolutionary issues. “The question now becomes whether evolution has gone through the trouble of selecting for these particular patterns more than once,” he said.

(Source) The New York Times

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