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In most animals, slow-wave sleep is characterized by high amplitude, low frequency EEG readings. This is also known as the desynchronized state of the brain, or deep sleep. In USWS, only one hemisphere exhibits the deep sleep EEG while the other hemisphere exhibits an EEG typical of wakefulness with a low amplitude and high frequency.
Like other marine mammals, seals sleep in water with half of their brain awake so that they can detect and escape from predators, as well as surface for air without fully waking. When they are asleep on land, both sides of their brain go into sleep mode.
Eared seals, like whales, show unihemispheric sleep. The sleeping half of the brain does not awaken when they surface to breathe. When one half of a seal's brain shows slow-wave sleep, the flippers and whiskers on its opposite side are immobile. While in the water, these seals have almost no REM sleep and may go a week or two without it.
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Unlike most animals, whales are conscious breathers. All mammals sleep, but whales cannot afford to become unconscious for long because they may drown. They are believed to exhibit unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, in which they sleep with half of the brain while the other half remains active. This behaviour was only documented in toothed whales ...
Despite their findings, the researchers still don't know "...why the brain only maintains an alert state in just one hemisphere – whether it's always the left or in alternation with the right ...
In the wild, mother seals only care for their pups for about four to six weeks before they are left to fend for themselves, but in that time, they learn a lot about seal behavior and especially ...
Whales often rest for periods of time under the surface in order to sleep in mainly horizontal positions, although sperm whales also rest vertically. [42] However, as they consciously need to breathe at the surface, they can rest only one-half of their brain at a time, known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.