Adaptive Sleep Loss in Polygynous Pectoral Sandpipers

You Snooze, You Lose Sleep serves restorative and memory functions, but it does not always operate analogously across species. Deferral of sleep may be possible when selection strongly favors the awake. Lesku et al. (p. 1654 see the Perspective by Siegel ) show that sleep may be deferred without cos...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Lesku, John A., Rattenborg, Niels C., Valcu, Mihai, Vyssotski, Alexei L., Kuhn, Sylvia, Kuemmeth, Franz, Heidrich, Wolfgang, Kempenaers, Bart
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2012
Subjects:
Arctic
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1220939
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1220939
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Summary:You Snooze, You Lose Sleep serves restorative and memory functions, but it does not always operate analogously across species. Deferral of sleep may be possible when selection strongly favors the awake. Lesku et al. (p. 1654 see the Perspective by Siegel ) show that sleep may be deferred without cost or impairment in pectoral sandpipers. These birds breed collectively in the high Arctic, and male competition is intense. Competing for, and displaying to, females are both physically and cognitively demanding, yet birds who slept the least showed no decrease in their ability to perform these activities. Indeed, those males who slept the least obtained the most matings and sired the most offspring.

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