Do Flies Sleep at Night? The Mystery of Insect Slumber Revealed!

[Greg Bernhardt]

Flies are very active during the day, but what are they up to at night? Do they find a leaf and get some shut eye?

Furthermore, I'll ask, do insects sleep?

For the meantime I found a little explanation here
http://insects.about.com/od/insects101/f/insect-sleep.htm

 

[jtbell]

This reminds me of a "Far Side" cartoon.

Gainesville Sun - Google News Archive Search

(top of the page, to the right of "Family Circus")

 

['roidbreaker]

>>"Certain members of the family Apiadae will spend the night suspended by only the grip of their jaws on a favorite plant."


thas so cute

 

[Evo]

Flies apparently do sleep.

Can you tell if a fly is asleep? This is precisely the question asked seven years ago by Dr. Joan Hendricks, who is now the Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In collaboration with Dr. Amita Sehgal and Dr. Allan Pack of the Penn Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology (CSRN), Dr. Hendricks wanted to determine if the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, an animal used since the early 1900s for genetic studies in biology, has a sleeplike state much as we do. But unlike human studies, where one can measure brain electrical activity to distinguish sleep from the waking state, one cannot easily measure fly brain waves. Instead, Dr. Hendricks used behavioral measures.

It was already known that Drosophila are not active all day, but rather have rest and activity patterns that follow an approximately 24-hour, or circadian, rhythm. They are active during the day and inactive at night, just like us. To determine if the inactive period corresponded to fly sleep, or simply to restful wakefulness, Dr. Hendricks first asked if the flies were less responsive during this period, much as we are less likely to respond to stimuli when asleep. She found that indeed, the flies were less likely to move in response to a gentle tap during these nocturnal quiescent periods than during the day.

Penn Sleep Centers Newsletter: Do Flies and Worms Sleep?

 

[256bits]

Flies are very active during the day, but what are they up to at night? Do they find a leaf and get some shut eye?

Furthermore, I'll ask, do insects sleep?

For the meantime I found a little explanation here
Do Insects Sleep? - How Do Insects Sleep?

Well, flies don't have eyelids so they can't literally get shuteye.
and, if they sleep, do they have dreams?

 

[fluidistic]

I'll tell 3 anecdotes.
First of all I can confirm Evo's post for some houseflies (myself seen many times a fly stuck on a wall and not well responsive to my hands at night and only at night) although I don't know the exact name/s of the specy/ies but I know it was not a fruit fly.
Second, not long ago I had a small fly in my house for months. It would be innactive over 90% of the time and almost totally unresponsive to my gestures. I took many photos of it. It basically became my pet until I discovered it defecated all over my walls. So I am not really sure that this fly had a 24 hours circadien cycle. I don't think this specy had, but I am not 100% sure.
Lastly, about 10 years ago in Canada we went to the countryside house of my aunt in winter. The house was at around -20°C. Usually in summer it was full of flies. I went upstairs and plugged an electric heating device. After a few minutes I would see many flies falling off the celing over me. The flies were basically "frozen" and they unfrozen quickly. After another few minutes the house was invaded by flies all around as if it was summer. I am not sure what were their state of "mind" when frozen. Nor do I know if they had their usual 24 hours circadien cycles when frozen.

 

[Pythagorean]

Well, flies don't have eyelids so they can't literally get shuteye.
and, if they sleep, do they have dreams?

There's research reporting that their "cns" participates in memory consolidation during sleep [1], similar to what some think is going on with humans. Of course, others have demonstrated skepticism in humans [2].

[1] PLOS ONE: Fatty-Acid Binding Proteins Modulate Sleep and Enhance Long-Term Memory Consolidation in Drosophila
[2] Neuron - Memory Consolidation in Sleep

Of course, it's impossible to know for sure what their subjective experience is like.

 

[HydroSpanner]

Flys Chill at Night.

Where flies go out at night depends on if they have been trapped indoors or not. The life span is short like 2-3 weeks. If they are inside they go crazy looking for the great outdoors. Flies don't like being trapped in human occupied places. I think our brain waves disturb theirs. If they are outside they are flying looking around for nourishment. They rest and go into deep meditative periods because they know their life is short so they are preparing for the big leap ahead.

You asked what if insects sleep. They rest. Do people sleep or do they rest? Is sleep real? Some people take deep periods of rest and they don't call it sleep. Some people will call it sleep as they dream heavily and call it sleep.

I don't think insects sleep. I think they take rest and move on. They question to ask: do insects have a soul. for that matter do people have a soul <hums twilight zone music>?