Lemurs could teach humans how to hibernate, saving countless lives in the process.
Fat-tailed dwarf lemurs are the only primates that hibernate, and they don't fully sleep throughout the eight-month period, National Geographic reported.
Since these primates are the closest hibernators to humans genetically, they could teach us a thing or two about how to follow suit. Learning how to hibernate could lead to revolutions in modern medicine, travel, and even war.
Hibernation doesn't always mean an ultra-long nap; it can be classified as "seasonal bodily changes that occur in some animals-slower heart rates, decreased oxygen intake, and a reduced ability to regulate body temperature," National Geographic reported.
The lemurs slip in and out of sleep throughout the resting period, LiveScience reported.
"Sleep seems to be necessary for every state, including in primates like us, even if they drop their body temperature and stop metabolic activity," Andrew Krystal, a sleep researcher at Duke University and study co-author, told LiveScience.
If humans learned to hibernate it could help prolong their lives in a great number of situations, National Geographic reported.
A patient waiting for an organ transplant could save their vital strength by slowing their bodily functions. During hibernation a lemur can breath as seldom as once every 20 minutes, and their heart beats about once every four minutes.
"We [could] induce their body into a hibernation-like state, where there's little body function, to preserve life," Chris Smith, a conservationist at Duke Lemur Center, told National Geographic. "Six months down the road, when we do have an organ donor, we [would] bring them out of the hibernation state and conduct a transplant."
The same could ring true for a soldier wounded in war. Astronauts who must travel for years at a time could drastically cut down on the amount of food resources needed on the mission. The practice could even prolong the average human life.
"Hibernators do live longer than non-hibernators," Krystal told National Geographic. "It looks like the time [the lemurs] are hibernating is added onto their lives."
Researchers studied the lemurs sleeping patterns by attaching electrodes to their heads to monitor their cycles of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
Non-REM sleep is believed to be more restorative than the more restless REM stages, so researchers were surprised when they found the lemurs rely solely on REM during hibernation, LiveScience reported.
"This is the best evidence yet that if you drop metabolic state, you don't need non-REM sleep," Krystal said.
The research "[offers] compelling new insights into the types of sleep patterns required for humans under varying temperatures and metabolic conditions," LiveScience reported.
