Unlike a computer that you can power down at the day’s end, the brain experiences non-stop electrical activity, but in the form of nerve impulses passing between neurons. In a recent webinar, Dickson shared new research from his lab and explained how brain rhythms during sleep may play a role in memory. Often, this work involves rats, which cycle through different phases of sleep much like humans do. In his Brain Rhythms Lab, he and his students study how brain activity during sleep aids in memory processes - kind of moving new memories into long-term storage. One hypothesis, Dickson says, is that sleep allows the brain to solidify new memories.

The sleepiest animal may be the koala, which can slumber for up to 22 hours a day.īut why we animals sleep remains a mystery. Cats and dogs spend half of their lives snoozing, while bats and walruses spend three-quarters of their lives asleep.

We spend about one-third of our lives asleep, a fact that has long-intrigued human scientists - like U of A psychology professor Clayton Dickson - but that figure wouldn’t impress most of the animal kingdom. This story originally appeared in the 2022 issue of Contours, the Faculty of Science magazine.

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