Spiders Sleep, But Do They Dream?

Jumping spiders in the genus Portia are sometimes called "eight-legged cats" for their large, almost feline eyes. Just like a cat, Portia spiders rely on their eyes to find, track, stalk, chase, and jump on their prey. While other spiders trap food in their webs, Portia spiders hunt insects and even other spiders and their eggs. (The spiders' unusual intelligence inspired Adrian Tchaikovsky's novel Children of Time, in which Portia spiders evolve and develop civilization on another planet.) So perhaps it is unsurprising that when fringed jumping spiders, or Portia fimbriata, take time to rest, they resemble cats, too. The spiders, whose bodies are around the size of Cheerios, first search for a safe spot. Then they spin a silken hammock, and groom themselves, cleaning every leg. Then they settle, become motionless, and droop. Their legs curl and occasionally twitch. And they even have little eye movements. Now a group of scientists has proven that these spiders do not just rest, but actually fall asleep. The spiders even experience a stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement, or REM, which is the stage of sleep in which we have our most vivid dreams. Their research was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Tell me this does not look like a cat!

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