Night lights may cause major sleep disturbance for birds

摘要

CITY lights could seriously disrupt the sleep patterns of birds, according to the first study to look at neurological activity in animals thought to be affected by light pollution. Researchers used tiny sensors to record brain activity in pigeons and magpies on three nights in an indoor aviary. On the second night, they were exposed to lights with a similar intensity to street lights. As well as white light, the study looked at amber light, which previous studies have suggested may have less impact on sleep. The lighting had an effect on both rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep. Magpies were more affected by white light than amber light, losing 76 per cent of their non-REM sleep, while pigeons lost about 4 hours of sleep in total, regardless of the type of light (Current Biology, doi.org/d4wm).