Most hunters understand the importance of bedding areas. A whitetail deer’s daily movement patterns generally consist of their nightly feeding locations and the resting places to which they return during the day.
But what do deer do in theirbedding areas? Do they sleep or just rest and chew their cud? Interestingly, this topic has rarely been discussed in the outdoor press until this interesting post by Kip Adams for QDMA.
Do whitetails sleep? The quick answer is, “Yes.” In fact, all birds and mammals sleep. Some species such as cattle, horses and sheep may even sleep standing up. The mechanisms of sleep are fairly well established, but the exact reason(s) animals sleep is less clear. Decades of research have only produced clues to the true function of sleep.
Let’s first examine what sleep is and then look at how it applies to whitetails. Sleep is a physiological state of rest that is necessary for survival. Sleep differs from unconsciousness in that sleep includes the capability of arousal, and different species obviously must sleep differently. Predators, for example, can afford longer, deeper periods of sleep. Prey species like deer cannot. For deer, sleep is necessary for health and survival, but so is the ability to be somewhat alert while sleeping. Sleep is a time to rebuild cells and recover from physiological and physical activities that occurred while awake. Finally, sleep can be divided into two general types: REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-REM). For simplicity, NREM accounts for 75 to 80 percent of a human’s sleep time, and REM is the portion where most dreaming occurs.
We now know that all deer sleep and at least have an idea of why they sleep. So, where and how do they sleep?
Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
