September 21, 2012 - Sleeping Giants

[SIZE="2"]This pod of sleeping sperm whales were sleeping so deeply they did not notice a research vessel until it bumped into them. The whale noses sticking out of the water alerted the researchers to their presence.

It appears that the sperm whales go into a full sleep for short periods of time several times a day. It is suspected they also have shorter periods of sleep throughout the day. (Whale naps and cat naps?)[/SIZE]

[SIZE="2"]they sleep very little: just 7% of the time. That contrasts sharply with smaller beluga and grey whales, which sleep for 32% and 41% of the time, respectively. Such a meagre amount of sleep designates the sperm whales as the least sleep-dependent mammals known. (The current record-holder is the giraffe, which sleeps for 8% of the time.)[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]The research team was from the University of St Andrew’s, UK, and they found the sleeping whales in Chile.

Go to Nature for more info and a video.[/SIZE]

That's cool! I had no idea they slept like that. It never occurred to me at all how they would sleep. I wonder if they wake up to breathe or if it's like sleep walking.

I wonder if they snore and/or dream.

no snoring. definitely dreaming

Wet dreams.

Dorks

monster;831291 wrote:

Wet dreams.

And here I thought we were going to stay away from ocean puns.

You did that on porpoise. I was going to fish you out but instead I'm just going to let you flounder.

So... How do you do Whale Tipping?

Griff;831297 wrote:

Dorks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH6sE8RMUuU

SPUCK;831328 wrote:

So... How do you do Whale Tipping?

Usually 20% unless the service was really slow.

:D

So, sperm whales have wet dreams and wet dreams have sperm wails.

Ain't nature wonderful?