Page 366 - AWSAR 2.0

342 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
Dynamic Changes in Sleep Distribution Helps in Nocturnal Flight of Migratory Buntings
Ms. Jyoti Tiwari*
Email: jyotitiwari27@yahoo.com
Since time immemorial, the concept of “time” has kept us fascinated and it still remains as an enigma. Atharvaveda
describes time as a horse, which does not tire or age and we are its mortal riders. Life has evolved to sense this abstract concept of time, since its birth and for that we have a master clock inside us, which drives our daily behaviour and physiology. This clock is located within our brain, inside a small cluster of neurons known as the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (that is SCN). The SCN receives a large amount of information from the environment through various afferent neurons, which helps it to tune our biological activity with the external world, so that we can perform our daily tasks at the correct time. This is the reason why we get up in the morning even if the room is pitch dark,
as our body already knows the time; it requires sunlight only to reset the body clock and tune it with the environment. As the above example suggests, one of the most important jobs of this biological clock is to regulate our sleep- wake cycle and my work involves studying the sleep-wake cycle in birds.
Sleep is a universal behaviour that has been demonstrated in every animal species studied, from insects to mammals. An average human being spends roughly one-third of their lives sleeping, so undoubtedly this behaviour must be playing a significant role in keeping us fit and healthy. Humans are a diurnal species, so we sleep at night, whereas nocturnal species such as rats sleep primarily during the day. Scientists around the world are working to understand the molecular details
* Ms. Jyoti Tiwari, PhD Scholar from the University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, is pursuing her research on “Effect of Sleep on Immune Responses in Birds”. Her popular science story entitled “Dynamic Changes in Sleep Distribution Helps in Nocturnal Flight of Migratory Buntings” has been selected for AWSAR Award.