Many people think of bears when they think of hibernation, but bears don’t hibernate very deeply at all. They go into hibernation and their body temperature drops only slightly. The real winter sleepers are reptiles, hedgehogs, and bats, for example.
Special winter sleep
Over the past few months, these mammals have eaten tons of food so they have sufficient fat reserves before they start hibernating. When they go to bed, their body temperature drops dramatically, just above the ambient temperature. They turned off their stoves. In addition, their heart rate slows down, they have almost no brain activity, and their metabolism decreases.
How do animals survive hibernation? How do they renew their youth because of this? Why don’t people hibernate? Chronology expert Roelof Hutt and PhD student Lauren de Witt, who research DNA damage after hibernation, tell all about hibernation on a podcast Early birds and other animals. You can listen to episodes in your favorite podcast app.
man in sleep
Skip the bad harvest with a year’s sleep. Survive the space flight. Facing climate change. It would be helpful for people to go into hibernation. But this is not the case – our bodies are not made for it.
We can learn a lot from those who sleep in winter. When an animal goes into hibernation, many changes in its body. For example, the brain and lungs look different and are associated with human diseases such as asthma and Alzheimer’s. After hibernation, organs appear normal again, whereas in humans this type of process is irreversible. Lauren de Wit: “Who knows, we may learn from people who sleep in winter how we can treat this kind of disease.”
Do you want to help people who sleep in winter find a good place to sleep? Make sure your garden isn’t too clean, but there are crowded corners where they can hide.
Chronology expert Roelof Hutt and PhD student Lauren de Witt talk about hibernation on a podcast Early birds and other animals. You can listen to episodes in your favorite podcast app.
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