Do insects sleep and if so, do they have dreams?
Posted by Hour_Course_9876@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 70 comments
I have a pet cat and a pet tarantula. I often see my cat sleeping and seeming to be having dreams (moving its legs,etc) I sometimes see my spider do the same thing. Is it dreaming of catching and eating?
Legitimate_State_209@reddit
You won’t know the answer until you become an insect yourself
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
A sadly an atheist so don’t believe in reincarnation
LogSubstantial9098@reddit
There is another way. Just ask Jeff Goldblum.
Postik123@reddit
Or Freddy Krugar. Where he turns that poor woman into a cockroach and squishes her in a trap
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
This made me laugh so so much!! Hats off
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
deathmetalbestmetal@reddit
What a strange combination of ontologies.
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
Only on Reddit eh?
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
Illustrious-Divide95@reddit
You may have a surprise coming....🐜
DaveL16@reddit
Did someone say Kafka?
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)
hottaptea@reddit
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.
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.
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
Can’t say I understood that
sheepandlambs@reddit
"Die Verwandlung", usually translated as "Metamorphosis", is a famous novel by Franz Kafka. About a guy turning into an insect.
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
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.
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
Do they really that so cool, what counts as ‘play’ for them?
Princess_Mercury_@reddit
from "Bumblebees rolling wooden balls may be first evidence of insect play"
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
That is just so so cool!
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..
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?
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.
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 🪴
ConPem@reddit
Keep beeing you
LillyAtts@reddit
Well, that's adorable.
iketoure@reddit
But in a war they would side with the insects
spynie55@reddit
Surely there is a war, and the spiders are on our side, eating the mosquitos?
iketoure@reddit
They'll betray us
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
Bugger you are right, should have said arthropods
Queasy-Airport2776@reddit
They are still insects, the definition of insects include spiders. 😅
spynie55@reddit
Insects have 6 legs.
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?
Queasy-Airport2776@reddit
The definition of insects include spiders...
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
I thinks it’s the other way round, all insects are arthropods but not all arthropods are insects?
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.
Conscious_Pass_1615@reddit
How can you tell your tarantula is sleeping? They don't have eyelids and they don't move much anyway??
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
Ok-Blackberry-3534@reddit
That's interesting, because I'd assume insects don't need sleep because they have much less information to process.
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
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
Apparently bumblebees also play with each other when they have spare time, which I find a very sweet concept
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 :-(
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.
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
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
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.
Maleficent-Win-6520@reddit
I knew a caterpillar once. He always dreamt about being a butterfly
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
What was it called?
Maleficent-Win-6520@reddit
George. He was very hungry
mnannig@reddit
this question never crossed my mind. now it will be wandering in my mind for the whole day lol
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
Will it ‘bug’ you?
BroodingSonata@reddit
Obviously spiders are not insects, but further, re your "correction", both insects and arachnids are arthropods.
Drwynyllo@reddit
"Do spiders dream? A new study suggests they do."
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/jumping-spiders-dream-rem-sleep-study-suggests
noodlyman@reddit
Fruit flies have brain states that look very much like sleep.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18591491/
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’!
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.
SimplyFootballNet@reddit
I am an insect.
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
FelicityFemboy@reddit
Why don't you ask your tarantula?
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
Tried to!!!
Sadly I have never been good with foreign languages…
FelicityFemboy@reddit
Yeah I wish I took a language at school precisely for these moments!
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
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
EnglishWolverine@reddit
This is the one I was referencing in my comment but didn’t have the source to hand. Thanks for adding this! :)
CapableSong6874@reddit
Brain activity during sleep reveals many interesting things. Monotremes do not dream based on brain activity for example. I doubt insects dream but who knows.
EnglishWolverine@reddit
There was a study in 2022 that showed that jumping spiders specifically enter a REM like state when they sleep and so most likely do dream. It could probably apply to other types of spider too.
Evening_Procedure216@reddit
What a great question!
Hour_Course_9876@reddit (OP)
I thought so too and it’s been ‘bugging’ me, pun intended
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