Spiders Can Dream While Sleeping, Researchers Suggest

If you see a spider sitting still, your first instinct may be to smash it, but scientists say the spider may be dreaming. 

German researchers say jumping spiders, while asleep, can fall into an REM cycle, the same sort of deep dream-like sleep with rapid eye movement that humans do. 

"They have little bursts of activity throughout the night that reoccur pretty regularly, and the durations are also very regular,” behavioral ecologist Daniela Roessler, the report’s author, CBS News. 

Jumping spiders were observed while taking 8-legged naps with night vision cameras, but unfortunately that doesn’t let us know what they were dreaming about.

"So, I personally do think that they're experiencing visual dreams, but it will be very difficult to prove that scientifically,” Roessler said. 

Jamie Mitchell, senior keeper of invertebrates at the London Zoo, had a theory about what the arthropods could be dreaming about while sleeping. 

"I would imagine they're going to be dreaming about flies, probably,” Mitchell said. 

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