# Do tapeworms sleep? If not, why not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231 "2014-10-13T19:26:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/1 "2014-10-13T19:26:32Z")
Watching dogs and cats sleep, and thinking about life, as I am wont, the topic of the ideal life came to me again. [For another thread: which philosopher said this is the goal of philosophy? One? Many?] Anyway, I picked up on an idea I OP’d here recently, on which species has it easiest, and remembered the proposal by **Colibri** , which was seconded by another poster, that the tapeworm won the sweepstakes. But then, looking at the cats, I–and am sure most everybody–realized that for us, at least, sleeping all day is practically a sine qua non of that realm. And so to hed. (I sound like Boswell. Or is it Pepys?) The “if not, why not” part is to ask: at what level of functioning, in an evolutionary sense, do organisms get sleep built in? ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/2 "2014-10-13T20:20:15Z")
As one point of comparison, nematodes have sleep-like behaviors that are governed by many of the same mechanisms that control sleep in humans. That would place the likely origin of sleep before the divergence of protostomes and deuterostomes, right near the origin of animal life and way before the origin of tapeworms. Off the top of my head I’ve heard it hypothesized that some sort of sleep is a characteristic of just about anything with a nervous system. Do jellyfish sleep? How about sponges? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/3 "2014-10-13T20:22:49Z")
Fruit flies enter a state that is at least analogous to sleep. Just to toss in another datum. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/4 "2014-10-13T20:51:16Z")
Do tapeworms dream of infected sheep? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/5 "2014-10-14T11:36:24Z")
According to this, REM sleep is limited to birds and mammals: [Sleep - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep#Evolution) ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/6 "2014-10-14T12:29:11Z")
Well, REM does imply eyes, right? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/7 "2014-10-14T12:47:38Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > Well, REM does imply eyes, right? At least if you are dreaming of a nice continental drift divide. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/8 "2014-10-14T12:50:27Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Do tapeworms dream of infected sheep? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/9 "2014-10-14T13:04:45Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > Well, REM does imply eyes, right? Eyes are not limited to mammals and birds, and the eye movements aren’t the important part of the REM-phase. It’s not like the secret of sleep is that it’s actually eye exercise. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/10 "2014-10-14T13:09:09Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Eyes are not limited to mammals and birds, and the eye movements aren’t the important part of the REM-phase. It’s not like the secret of sleep is that it’s actually eye exercise. True. And, anyway, not all sleep is REM sleep. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/11 "2014-10-14T13:15:24Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Do tapeworms dream of infected sheep? Dick. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/12 "2014-10-14T13:26:24Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Dick. Almost as funny as the first joke. 😃 (I suppose you risk mod action if it wooshes someone though.) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/13 "2014-10-14T13:30:18Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Almost as funny as the first joke. 😃 (I suppose you risk mod action if it wooshes someone though.) The sort of mod action that leads to a funny ATMB thread, though.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-tapeworms-sleep-if-not-why-not/701231/14 "2014-10-14T13:42:01Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Watching dogs and cats sleep, and thinking about life, as I am wont, the topic of the ideal life came to me again. > > [For another thread: which philosopher said this is the goal of philosophy? One? Many?] Socrates is probably the best known and earliest thinker in Western philosophy to have explicitly identified the aim of philosophy with determining what constitutes “the good life”. Now back to your regularly scheduled tapeworm musings. 🙂