What sea creature sleeps with one eye open and one eye closed?
The dolphin. They have a couple good reasons for doing this.
Like us the dolphin's brain is made up of two halves (or hemispheres) but unlike us only one half of a dolphin's brain sleeps at a time. Each side of the brain takes short "naps" at different times of the day. The eye that is controlled by the side of the brain that is sleeping will be shut.
You and I are involuntary breathers. If we don’t think about it we’ll just breathe automatically. Dolphins are conscious breathers, which means they must stay partly awake in order to breathe. So, while one side of their brain is asleep the other side tells them when to surface and take another breath. Dolphins actually get about 8 hours of sleep this way. The awake side is also probably watching out for predators. Scientists believe whales sleep the same way.
This Q&A by Hillori Mitchell
A few years ago Hillori was sharing some fun bits of science trivia with friends when one of them told her, "You're just too smart!" A couple weeks later Just2Smart.com was born.
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