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www.psychlotron.org.uk
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Name of resource: Ecological theories of sleep
Submitted by: Aidan Sammons
Specification details: AQA-A
Other specifications: 
Guidance: Gives an account of the ecological approach and associated hypotheses.  Students then
apply these to a range of animals about which basic info is given.  They should try to make 
estimates of the average amount of sleep each animal gets whic can then be compared to actual data.
They should then be invited to consider the extent to which comparisons between species support or 
challenge the ecological theory.  It is likely that they will notice that different aspects of the
ecological approach generate different predictions.  The relevant data are (approx):

Elephant - 4 hrs
Brown bat - 20 hrs
Lion - 16 hrs
Buffalo - 3-4 hrs
Rabbit - 8 hrs
Dolphin - depends on species but sleep habits quite unusual (e.g. 2-3 second microsleeps; sleeping
with one hemisphere at a time)