The first-ever sleep study on a nocturnal primate performed in the wild has provided fascinating insights which might tell us more about our own sleep patterns.
Published in Scientific Reports, the paper entitled "Environment shapes sleep patterns in a wild nocturnal primate" was led by Oxford Brookes University's Kathleen Reinhardt, under the remit of Professor Anna Nekaris’ Little Fireface Project in West Java, Indonesia. The study was conducted in association with researchers at the University of Oslo and our Department's Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Prof Vladyslav Vyazovskiy.
The research suggests that being able to sleep in one continuous block has been shaped by environmental pressures observed in slow lorises. This finding could help us understand the evolutionary impact on sleep patterns in humans.
The full story is available on the Oxford Brookes University website.