> Now you appear to be suggesting the time spent in sleep is mainly a function of the
> animal’s “evolutionary level” or “level of brain development”.
Yes, Yes, Yes, in terms of how the brain is "processing energy" since the
brain is the primary organ (bod part!) that is directly involved in the sleep function. Again, during sleep what changes the
most are the EM brain waves. Barbara's links also provided plenty of evidence for that.
As you have probably noticed by now, I really like the concept of "energy processing" to describe a lot of the processes involved in nature. This is what I see to be one of the main activities that are always going on in real time.
When eating and drinking, what is being processed is the chemical energy within the food as it is being digested. There is a lot of linkage break downs and a lot of transfers of energy going on.
When breathing, what is being processed is primarily the Oxygen content of the various internal body actions and reaction since Oxygen is such a critical component of that. Like, for example, without Oxygen, there would be no fire!
When sleeping, what is being processed is much higher level stuff (information/data!) which is also why it is still not so well understood! Note, however, that Oxygen is still being used a lot since some animals and people do actually breath very heavy during sleep...
-wirelessguru1
