Investigating Sleep in Wild Chimpanzees
Research project
Uncovering the Social and Behavioural Dimensions of Sleep
Despite being a fundamental aspect of animal life, our understanding of sleep remains limited—largely because most research has been conducted in captivity, where animals are removed from the environmental and social pressures they face in the wild. As a result, the adaptive role of sleep in natural contexts is still poorly understood. Studying sleep in one of our closest living relatives—chimpanzees—not only helps bridge this gap but also offers valuable insights into the evolution of sleep in humans.
Sleep is thought to have played a crucial role in the development of cognitive and social complexity. Some hypotheses suggest that early humans evolved shorter, more efficient sleep patterns to meet increasing cognitive demands. However, comparisons with humans rely mainly on data from captive animals, despite evidence that sleep patterns differ significantly in the wild. Therefore, studying sleep in wild animals is essential to gain more accurate and ecologically relevant insights.
This PhD project builds on the work of Dr. Clara Hozer, who was the first to film sleeping wild chimpanzees. It aims to investigate how internal factors, such as stress, and external factors, like social interactions, influence sleep patterns—and how variations in sleep quality and quantity affect next-day behaviours, including aggression and potential compensatory strategies following poor sleep. The research focuses on wild eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the Budongo Forest, Uganda, under the supervision of Dr. Clara Hozer and Prof. Klaus Zuberbühler.
Team
