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On January 3rd we celebrate The Festival of Sleep, and...
I WANNA BE A BEAR!!!
If you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.
Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that, too.
If you're a bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you're sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.
If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.
If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.
I wanna be a bear.
Secrets of Hibernation
by Peter Tyson
Certain mammals have what many people might consider the good fortune to be able to sleep through the winter -- to hibernate. They bed down in the fall and, for all intents and purposes, don't arise again until the spring. Raccoons and skunks do it. So do woodchucks and chipmunks, hamsters and hedgehogs, bats and bears. Some, particularly rodents, sleep very deeply, while others, such as bears, slumber more lightly.
One of the most celebrated hibernators is the American black bear (Ursus americanus). It can go for as long as 100 days without eating, drinking, urinating, defecating, or exercising. Biologists have long acknowledged that hibernating black bears may have something to teach us, and they are now studying the animals with an eye to aiding everything from organ preservation to kidney disorders, from human hibernation to long-distance space travel.
With all this at stake, it's worth taking a closer look at the black bear and its stunning physiological feats. How can it survive for so long without drinking? Why doesn't hunger force it to wake up and seek a meal in midwinter? What triggers it to enter and leave its den?
Find out HERE.
So how much sleep does a person require?
According to kidshealth.org:
People from every part of the world, hippos in the jungle, fish in aquariums - they all sleep! Sleep is as important as breathing or eating. In fact, people can survive longer without food than they can without sleep!
Sleep is vital for giving your body a rest and allowing it to prepare for the next day. It's like giving your body a mini-vacation. Sleep also gives your brain a chance to sort things out. Scientists aren't exactly sure what kinds of organizing your brain does while you sleep, but they think that sleep may be the time when the brain sorts and stores information, replaces chemicals, and solves problems.
The amount of sleep a person needs depends a lot on his age. Babies sleep a whole lot - about 16 or 17 hours a day! But many older people only need about six or seven hours of sleep a night. Most kids between the ages of five and 12 are somewhere in between - they sleep eight to ten hours a night. But the amount of sleep a kid needs really depends on the kid; some find they need a little less sleep, some more.
Skipping one night's sleep makes a person cranky and clumsy. After missing two nights of sleep, a person will have problems thinking and doing things; his brain and body can't do their normal tasks nearly as well. After five nights without sleep, a person will hallucinate (this means seeing things that aren't actually there). Eventually, it becomes impossible for the brain to give its directions to the rest of the body without sleep - the brain needs to spend time in bed and catch its zzzz's!
Updated and reviewed by: Kim Rutherford, MD
Date reviewed: May 2001
If you want to celebrate this festival with someone special,
here are some Festival of Sleep cards.
This page created for Diva of the 'Net
by Peggy Swycaffer
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