Do insects sleep and if so, do they have dreams?

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Legitimate_State_209@reddit

You won’t know the answer until you become an insect yourself

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

A sadly an atheist so don’t believe in reincarnation

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LogSubstantial9098@reddit

There is another way. Just ask Jeff Goldblum.

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Postik123@reddit

Or Freddy Krugar. Where he turns that poor woman into a cockroach and squishes her in a trap

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

This made me laugh so so much!! Hats off

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Inevitable_Bid8719@reddit

Im a nihilist who believes in reincarnation, I dont think they are exclusive. I also think all of reality is 'god' though so its a bit of a dense nugget to pull apart every time I mention that

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deathmetalbestmetal@reddit

What a strange combination of ontologies.

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Inevitable_Bid8719@reddit

I mean im an IRL person too, sometimes.. and Im definitely not alone in my view on that matter. 'Pataphysics is born from this worldview so it must be relatively common

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Gazmaster@reddit

Akshually Kafka doesn’t specify he became an insect, I believe the translation for the term he used was some sort of vermin? (sorry for the pedantry)

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The German word is 'Ungeziefer' which according to Duden is animal pests (such as lice, bedbugs, mites, as well as rats and mice). Commonly translated as vermin, yes. The first paragraph of Kafka's book also contains a further description: He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections...His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.
If I've got my etymology correct, the German word means an animal unsuitable for sacrifice. Whereas the English vermin has its roots in Latin vermis for worm.

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sheepandlambs@reddit

Normal people: Reading Harry Potter and wanting to attend Hogwarts.

You: Reading Die Verwandlung and wanting to experience eine Verwandlung.

Can't say I agree, but to each their own.

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Can’t say I understood that

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sheepandlambs@reddit

"Die Verwandlung", usually translated as "Metamorphosis", is a famous novel by Franz Kafka. About a guy turning into an insect.

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Many thanks 🙏 and kind of you for not being judgmental about me not knowing!

At least I do know what book I’ll be reading next

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spynie55@reddit

You're going to have a load of people pointing out that spiders are not insects, but it looks like they do dream. I don't know about other insects, but they do sleep, and so they probably do dream. I know bumble bees like to play when they have sufficient food and time, which I think is really sweet.

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Do they really that so cool, what counts as ‘play’ for them?

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Princess_Mercury_@reddit

Over 18 3-hour sessions, the bees opted to enter the zone with free-moving balls 50 per cent more often than the zone with stationary balls. Each bee rolled balls between one and 117 times throughout the study despite having no obvious incentive to do so.

from "Bumblebees rolling wooden balls may be first evidence of insect play"

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

That is just so so cool!

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spynie55@reddit

It is, isn't it. You kind of think of social insects as mindless robots just gathering food for the colony, but bumble bees appear to have 'personalities' - at least 1 bee only rolled a ball 1 time and at least 1 other bee loved football and played 117 times..

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Can you raise bumblebees? Would that make still make you an apiarist? Even if you are not technically raising/loving standard bees?

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spynie55@reddit

https://apiscera.com/en/woman-becomes-first-known-person-to-keep-bumblebee-as-a-pet/

No idea, but you might like to read that one too.

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

You really are a great person, although me wife will think differently

Following all of this I’m looking into buying a bumblebee colony with queen for our garden 🪴

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ConPem@reddit

Keep beeing you

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LillyAtts@reddit

Well, that's adorable.

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iketoure@reddit

But in a war they would side with the insects

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spynie55@reddit

Surely there is a war, and the spiders are on our side, eating the mosquitos?

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iketoure@reddit

They'll betray us

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Bugger you are right, should have said arthropods

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Queasy-Airport2776@reddit

They are still insects, the definition of insects include spiders. 😅

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spynie55@reddit

Insects have 6 legs.

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RetroBoxRoom@reddit

Please point to a reference that Spiders are insects? The book The Hobbit doesn’t count.

Spiders are in the Class Arachnida and Insects are in the Class Insecta are they not?

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Queasy-Airport2776@reddit

The definition of insects include spiders...

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

I thinks it’s the other way round, all insects are arthropods but not all arthropods are insects?

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behemuffin@reddit

Spiders are arachnids. Arachnids and insects (and crustaceans, millipedes, lots of other groups too) are all Arthropods.

Arthropods are basically any invertebrate with jointed legs - the word literally means jointed legs.

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Conscious_Pass_1615@reddit

How can you tell your tarantula is sleeping? They don't have eyelids and they don't move much anyway??

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Inevitable_Bid8719@reddit

this is a good question, I dont doubt that insects need sleep too - but differentiating between boredom, sleep and meditating isnt something ive been able to do with my little creepies very clearly

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Ok-Blackberry-3534@reddit

That's interesting, because I'd assume insects don't need sleep because they have much less information to process.

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Inevitable_Bid8719@reddit

they have to process the whole day, same as anything else. A human still needs to have about the same sleep pattern whether they have more ore less information that day doesnt seem to make a huge difference to the amount of sleep, maybe some difference in the intensity of dreams within sleep, but sleep is linked with many things other than information processing

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Apparently bumblebees also play with each other when they have spare time, which I find a very sweet concept

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Inevitable_Bid8719@reddit

they are intelligent in many ways, Im convinced that my stick insects have 'depression' from me sleeping with the light on too often. I joke that they are trying to sudoku themselves when they fall from the top, but the space isnt big enough. I am a cruel god to them I suppose :-(

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ldn-ldn@reddit

All complex life forms are quite intelligent, including plants. Plants are capable of group action against threats, that requires communication (yes, plants do communicate with each other) and planning skills.

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Inevitable_Bid8719@reddit

I agree that they are intelligent, I wonder what their gods would look like to us? and whether they have something like depression

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Usually I think she is sleeping when she doesn’t move in her burrow and tucks her legs beneath her body, not sure if that sleeps

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Conscious_Pass_1615@reddit

I'd imagine that, like the other commentor said, it's more of a meditation type deal than what we would call sleep. I doubt they have the ability to dream at all.

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Maleficent-Win-6520@reddit

I knew a caterpillar once. He always dreamt about being a butterfly

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

What was it called?

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Maleficent-Win-6520@reddit

George. He was very hungry

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mnannig@reddit

this question never crossed my mind. now it will be wandering in my mind for the whole day lol

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Will it ‘bug’ you?

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BroodingSonata@reddit

Obviously spiders are not insects, but further, re your "correction", both insects and arachnids are arthropods.

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Drwynyllo@reddit

"Do spiders dream? A new study suggests they do."
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/jumping-spiders-dream-rem-sleep-study-suggests

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noodlyman@reddit

Fruit flies have brain states that look very much like sleep.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18591491/

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Got to love the world we live in!

I’m certain there was a meeting where someone went- should we research more into cancer cures and some other bloke went ‘No, we need to find out if fruit flies sleep’!

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noodlyman@reddit

Drosophila have always been a model organism, the place we look to see how fundamental biology works.

Remember that sleep, or lack of it, is important in may illnesses, shift workers etc. So if we can understand how it works, that might bring benefits.

Many of the most important scientific discoveried are made by people just messing about because they're curious about something.

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SimplyFootballNet@reddit

I am an insect.

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

It’s 2026, I don’t mind you identifying as whatever you would like just don’t shove it in other peoples faces

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FelicityFemboy@reddit

Why don't you ask your tarantula?

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Tried to!!!

Sadly I have never been good with foreign languages…

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FelicityFemboy@reddit

Yeah I wish I took a language at school precisely for these moments!

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

Yeah, who needs Latin when you could speak spider.

Although knowing her character she would just spend a lot of time cursing

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Dazzling_Bat_Hat@reddit

This is a summary of a study on jumping spiders if that’s any use.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2204754119

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Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)

I thought so too and it’s been ‘bugging’ me, pun intended

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