ArticleCurrent biology : CB2018
Fur Seals Suppress REM Sleep for Very Long Periods without Subsequent Rebound.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 120 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Sentinel Sleep Theory: Unweaving the biological function of REM sleep.Sleep medicine: X · 2026Article
- Wintering Barnacle Geese Exhibit an Increased Behavioural Drive for Sleep After Sleep Deprivation Without a Clear EEG-Based Sleep Rebound.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Wavelength-dependent sleep state manipulation using light pulses in Pogona vitticeps.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Widespread loss of sleep in independently evolved populations of wild-caught cavefish.iScience · 2025Article
- Sleep homeostasis in lizards and the role of the cortex.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Elevated sleep quota in a stress-resilient Drosophila species.Current biology : CB · 2024Article
- A 108-h total sleep deprivation did not impair fur seal performance in delayed matching to sample task.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2024Article
- Variation and convergence in the morpho-functional properties of the mammalian neocortex.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2024Review
- REM sleep function: Mythology vs. reality.Revue neurologique · 2023Review
- Article
- Mechanisms of Sleep/Wake Regulation under Hypodopaminergic State: Insights from MitoPark Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2023Article
- Sleep function: an evolutionary perspective.The Lancet. Neurology · 2022Review
- Sleep to Survive Predators.Neuroscience bulletin · 2022Article
- Regularly occurring bouts of retinal movements suggest an REM sleep-like state in jumping spiders.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Article
- Motivational and Valence-Related Modulation of Sleep/Wake Behavior are Mediated by Midbrain Dopamine and Uncoupled from the Homeostatic and Circadian Processes.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2022Article
- Ecological and social pressures interfere with homeostatic sleep regulation in the wild.eLife · 2022Article
- Introduction to the theme issue: Measuring physiology in free-living animals.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- REM Sleep Microstates in the Human Anterior Thalamus.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Virtually all land mammals and birds have two sleep states: slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep [1, 2]. After deprivation of REM sleep by repeated awakenings, mammals increase REM sleep time [3], supporting the idea that REM sleep is homeostatically regulated. Some evidence suggests that periods of REM sleep deprivation for a week or more cause physiological dysfunction and eventual death [4, 5]. However, separating the effects of REM sleep loss from the stress of repeated awakening is difficult [2, 6]. The northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) is a semiaquatic mammal [7]. It can sleep on land and in seawater. The fur seal is unique in showing both the bilateral SWS seen in most mammals and the asymmetric sleep previously reported in cetaceans [8]. Here we show that when the fur seal stays in seawater, where it spends most of its life [7], it goes without or greatly reduces REM sleep for days or weeks. After this nearly complete elimination of REM, it displays minimal or no REM rebound upon returning to baseline conditions. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that REM sleep may serve to reverse the reduced brain temperature and metabolism effects of bilateral nonREM sleep, a state that is greatly reduced when the fur seal is in the seawater, rather than REM sleep being directly homeostatically regulated. This can explain the absence of REM sleep in the dolphin and other cetaceans and its increasing proportion as the end of the sleep period approaches in humans and other mammals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.