The Price of Sleep: teacher key

How Animals Sleep, grade 10 edition, written for 10th grade. Some animals sleep little, some sleep in pieces, and some save energy in other ways. See what scientists have measured about the price of sleep.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. How much did frigatebirds sleep in flight compared with on land?
   • 7.4 percent as much (answer)
   • Twice as much
   • The same amount
2. What did the sandpiper study find?
   • The males that slept the least sired the most young (answer)
   • The males that slept most lived longest
   • Females slept least
3. Why does the frigatebird study challenge an old idea?
   • Birds on long flights do not seem to get normal sleep on the wing (answer)
   • Birds never fly far
   • Birds sleep only upside down
4. What does the 1984 paper suggest about sleep, torpor and hibernation?
   • They are related energy-saving states on a continuum (answer)
   • They are the same thing
   • They have nothing in common
5. Why does the author say telling insect sleep from sleep-like states is hard?
   • Insects hide
   • A still insect that is harder to wake may be in a sleep-like state (answer)
   • Insects do not move at all
6. What does continuum mean here?
   • A steady range from one state to another (answer)
   • A kind of nest
   • A loud noise

Words

• unihemispheric: one half-brain
• acetylcholine: a brain chemical
• adenosine: a body chemical
• torpor: deep rest
• matriarchs: lead females