Platypus Dreams

originally posted: 11/12/01

Brought to you by a writer named Como Runner in the Pioneer Press online Bulletin Board. CR writes: "Journalists often report stories gleaned from the current week's medical and scientific journals. But they missed an important one in Science this week -- about sleep.

"I learned that many mammals have REM [Rapid Eye Movement] sleep -- which in humans, of course, is associated with dreams. Even more amazing (well, to me, anyway), platypuses have the most REM sleep of all the mammals: eight hours a night! Granted, they sleep 14 hours at a stretch. Other mammals have a lot of potential dream time, too: Hedgehogs have 3-1/2 hours; armadillos average three hours. Humans are lower on the scale; we only average two hours a night. But that's more than the poor giraffes, who only get a half-hour a night.

"No one knows if these animals actually spend their REM time dreaming, as we humans do. And this article was far too erudite to delve into potential animal dreams. But I just love wondering: What might a platypus dream?"