Christian’s lecture explores the ‘mystery of sleep’ – sleep is costly as animals cannot find food, and are more vulnerable during this time, so why do we do it? He outlines the criteria for ‘what is sleep?’, and includes some examples of when animals can break these rules – such as sleep walking. Christian explains that homeostatic regulation encourages us to want to sleep more based on how long we have been awake, and that this interacts with our circadian clock (which is stimulated by daylight) to make us tired. He asks us to consider which animals sleep, and why this might be. Christian goes on to discuss how we can record and analyse sleep. 

Did you enjoy watching this lecture? Explore more about this topic and the other taster lectures from this Session in our Further Reading Materials Booklet.