Octopuses may experience dreaming similarly to humans, study finds

Cephalopods are thought to bear two completely different levels of sleep: ”quiet” and “active” – the latter consists of physique elements twitching and modifications within the sample and texture of the pores and skin.

According to researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan, scientists haven’t solely decided that octopuses are actually asleep throughout this “active” stage, however shut similarities with REM sleep – seen in vertebrates together with people – have been additionally noticed.

REM sleep is a part of slumber intently related to dreaming. 

The crew’s lead creator, Professor Sam Reiter, stated that outcomes have been “consistent” with the concept octopuses dream.

“We can associate certain skin patterns during wakefulness to certain situations: hunting, social displays, threat displays, camouflage to different sorts of environments. We show that these patterns reappear during active sleep,” Reiter stated, per The Guardian.

“So, if we are looking at something like dream, and I repeat this is a possibility we do not prove in this study, they would resemble a pseudo random walk over different types of waking experiences.”

Another potential cause for the altering of texture within the animals’ pores and skin throughout might be because of a “refining of pattern”, Reiter added.

The examine discovered that of the 29 octopuses studied, the animals tended to shut their eyes in daylight and “adopted a resting posture associated with sleep”.

Every 60 minutes or so throughout this era, they might bear “rapid changes of skin colour” lasting a minute, with modifications in respiration charge, in addition to physique and eye actions noticed.

When scientists tapped on the tanks and watched how the octopus responded, they discovered the animals confirmed a spread completely different reactions, relying on whether or not they have been awake, within the quiet stage of sleep, or within the energetic stage.