Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T03:51:03.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sleep in sheep

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

Joan Munro
Joan Munro*
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, University of Aberdeen
Get access

Extract

While there is no exact definition of sleep acceptable by all authorities, it is generally accepted that ordinary sleep is characterised by a loss of critical reactivity to events in the environment, an increased threshold of general sensibility and reflex irritability, and the ability of being aroused or brought back to a state of wakefulness (Kleitman, 1929). There are many physiological changes in sleep such as fall in blood pressure, decrease in heart rate, reduction in pH of the blood, reduction in urine secretion, decrease in metabolic rate, slow and regular breathing, muscular relaxation and the disappearance of deep reflex actions, but almost any of these physiological changes may be absent in a sleep which is normal in all other respects. It is therefore more accurate to refer to the physiological accompaniments than to the physiology of sleep (Gillespie, 1929).

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production , Volume 1957 , 1957 , pp. 71 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1957

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balch, C. C., 1955. Sleep in ruminants. Nature [Lond.], 175: 940.Google Scholar
Canaway, R. J., Raymond, W. F., & Tayler, J. C., 1955. The automatic recording of animal behaviour in the field. Electron. Engng., 27: 102.Google Scholar
Castle, M. E., Foot, A. S., & Halley, R. J., 1950. Some observations on the behaviour of dairy cattle with particular reference to grazing. J. Dairy Res., 17: 215.Google Scholar
England, G. J., 1954. Observations on the grazing behaviour of different breeds of sheep at Pantyrhuad Farm, Carmarthenshire. Brit. J. Anim. Behav., 2: 56.Google Scholar
Gillespie, R. D., 1929. Sleep and the Treatment of its Disorders. Baillière, Tindall & Cox, London.Google Scholar
Gordon, J. G., 1955. Rumination in the sheep. Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. Aberdeen.Google Scholar
Johnstone-Wallace, D. B., & Kennedy, K., 1944. Grazing management practices and their relationship to the behaviour and grazing habits of cattle. J. agric. Set, 34: 190.Google Scholar
Kleitman, N., 1929. Sleep. Physiol. Rev., 9: 624.Google Scholar
Manacéine, M. de, , 1897. Sleep: its Physiology, Pathology, Hygiene and Psychology. Contr. Sci. Ser., London.Google Scholar
Pavlov, I. P., 1927. Conditioned Reflexes. Translated & edited by Anrep, G. V.. Oxford University Press (Humphrey Milford), London.Google Scholar
Tribe, D.E., 1955. The behaviour of grazing animals. Progress in the Physiology of Farm Animals. Ed. Hammond, J.. Butterworths Sci. Publ., London. Vol. 2, p. 585.Google Scholar
Wright, S., 1937. Applied Physiology. Oxford Medical Publications.Google Scholar