Is sleep in animals affected by prior waking experiences?
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
2010 |
Authors: |
F. M. Langford, M. S. Cockram |
Publication/Journal: |
Animal Welfare |
Keywords: |
animal welfare, non-rem, rem, sleep, stress, wakefulness |
Abstract:
Methods to assess changes in the mental state of animals in response to their environment can be used to provide information to enhance animal welfare. One of the most profound changes of mental state observable in mammals is the change between wakefulness and sleep. Sleeping mammals have characteristics that are similar to one another and are measurable, such as specific behaviours, changes in responsiveness to external stimuli and changes in electrophysiology and neurochemistry. Although sleep is a ubiquitous behaviour in the life of mammals, there has been relatively little research on this topic in domesticated animals. All animals are motivated to sleep and this motivation increases after a prolonged period of wakefulness. In humans, sleep can be affected by what has occurred in the prior period of wakefulness and this has also been demonstrated in some non-human mammals. An important aspect of human sleep medicine is the association between stress and subsequent sleep disturbances. Studying changes in amount, bout length, distribution or type of sleep after exposure to potentially stressful events, could help us understand how animals respond to changes in their environment. It is possible that different types of stressors could affect sleep characteristics in different ways and that monitoring and identifying these changes could be useful in providing an additional way of identifying management procedures that have the potential to affect welfare. Sleep measurement is a potentially valuable tool in studies to assess animal welfare.