SWEET DREAMS FOR HONEYBEES

Sweet dreams make life more beautiful -- not just for humans, but for bees as well! A new study indicates that honeybees not only sleep, but they dream, just like we do!

We actually have more in common with bees than you might imagine. We are both social species, communicating with each other to help each other to survive and thrive.

And we are both busy creatures -- we both need to sleep.

Honeybees sometimes hold each other in embrace as they slumber.

Just as it is with humans, deep sleep (slow-wave sleep) consolidates memories, transferring them from short-term to long-term memory.

While dreaming has long been thought to occur only during REM sleep, recent studies have found that dreaming can also occur during slow-wave sleep -- deep sleep for honeybees.

Bees dreams are likely quite basic, focused on aroma and color.

Dream states during sleep serve an important function for humans, enabling us to process information gathered when we are awake and store the data in long-term memory. Apparently, dreams serve the same purpose for honeybees.

Humans and honeybees are both social species, communicating and working together to render a better life for their communities.

Over the last few years, a group of scientists have started to uncover why honeybees need to sleep and dream. It seems that resting periodically actually helps the productivity of the hive.

While bees have the reputation of being busy all the time, they have to sleep too in order to work most effectively. Similar to human circadian rhythm, honeybees sleep between 5 - 8 hours each night, resting while it’s too dark to forage for pollen and nectar.

Back in 1983, scientist Walter Kaiser first discovered that honeybees sleep. He observed that at night, bees’ legs would begin to flex to allow their heads to rest on the floor of the hive. Then their antennae would stop moving. And then, they fell over sideways, as if intoxicated, to enter a state of sleep. Many bees held each other's legs as they slept.

Kaiser's study was the first record of sleep in an invertebrate. It turns out many other, if not all, species sleep as well. According to Barrett Klein, a sleep biologist from the University of Wisconsin Wisconsin–La Crosse, "There's no universally-accepted exception."

When scientists experimented by keeping bees awake, preventing their sleep, the bees began to perform normal tasks poorly, just as humans do when they are sleep deprived.

Bees, like humans, are social animals. Communication and cooperation are critical to survival. Sleep-deprived bees cannot communicate properly. As a result, they cannot work well together to forage, locate, and transport pollen, wasting precious time and energy. The whole colony suffers.

Sleep-deprived honeybees have trouble orienting themselves, even in their own hives. They start to forget how to perform their normal activities.

We know that for humans, deep sleep (aka slow-wave sleep) is when dreams happen and memories are consolidated. Short-term memories are transferred to long-term memory. And learning is reinforced. And in a recent study, scientists from the Free University of Berlin, led by Randolf Menzel, found that the same is true for honeybees.

For both humans and honeybees, the previous day's activities are reactivated during dream states and stabilized so learning can be accessed in the future.

What might honeybees be dreaming about? A color, a fragrance, a taste sensation, a place where the flowers are the most beautiful? Whatever they might be, they are sure to be sweet dreams!

Read more about Beautiful Sweets in  The Sweetest Escape: The Brando, Sweet Dreamy Visions: Isabelle Menin,  Sweet News: Cinnamon Saves Lives!, and  Sweet Pie Designs by Lauren Ko.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE LIST:

1. Image: by Srikanth Vk. “Carpenter bee.”
2. Image: by Toshihiro Gamo. “Carpenter Bee on Cotton Rose Mallow.”
3. Image: by Marilylle Soveran. “Beautiful Blue.”
4. Image: by Jack. “Window Shopping.”
5. Image: by Theophilos Papadopoulos. “Spring Scene.”
6. Image: by Nathan Siemers. “North American Honeybee on top of a Dogwood flower.”
7. Image: by Lorenzo L. “A Bee Named Honey.”
8. Image: by Heartlover1717. “Morning Glories @ Magic Wings.”
9. Image: by John T Howard. “Honey bees!”
10. Image: by vintagecat. “The Bee Stopped to Rest.”
11. Image: by John. “Peony Picnic.”
12. Image: by Cheng I. “Purple BEE.”
13. Image: by Bhavna Sayana. “Stay away from mee Mr. Bee ...She said.”
14. Image: by Ian Boyd. “Colletes hederae.”
15. Image: by BRJ INC. “Bee on the Anther.”
16. Image: by Danny Perez Photography. Bee foraging for pollen.
17. Image: by John Williams. “Dahlia.”