How do whales breathe when they sleep?

Answer 1

whales travel 24 hours a day. So far, scientists have found no real difference in the whales' swimming patterns during nighttime hours. How do whales rest along the way?

For many years, scientists were unsure about this question. They had long observed whales lying motionless on the surface in an activity called "logging." Whales "log" for short periods of time, 20-30 minutes or so, but no one knew what was actually happening. We knew they were resting during these periods, but were they sleeping? If they are sleeping, do they sleep like we do?

We know that whales are voluntary breathers, which means they must actually think each time they take a breath. Humans don't have to do this. We can basically go unconscious while we sleep. How do whales sleep if they must remain conscious to breathe? For many years, there was an idea that dolphins are able to shut down one half of their brain and keep the other half active, allowing them to rest half of the brain at a time. This sounded pretty far-fetched, and scientists were skeptical about the idea. But several years ago, a Russian scientist put this idea to the test. He placed electrodes on the heads of bottlenose dolphins and recorded their brain waves over long periods of time. His results showed that these dolphins actually put one hemisphere of their brain to rest at a time, while the other half remained active! No one has performed the same experiment with large whales, but presumably whales may be doing the same thing, allowing them to "sleep" for short periods each day. What do you think?

We don't really know what a whale's resting state feels like, but here's a good guess. A whale's resting state probably feels something like the semi-conscious state we experience as we begin to fall asleep. Tonight when you go to sleep, try to be aware of what happens. You may notice that when you're pretty close to being asleep (or close to being unconscous), you are still aware enough of your surroundings to wake up completely if you need to.

hope this is the answer to ur question

Answer 2

I am not sure about whales but dolphins for sure shut down half of their brain down to sleep and leave the other side running. That is why you will see some dolphins with one eye closed and the other open. That way they can still get to the surface and breath without going suffering fatigue. They alternate shutting down their brain from side to side, ex, left side of the brain and then right.

Answer 3

Some of them are buoyant and sleep floating on the surface breathing air. Others can do what in humans is comparable to the "dead man's float" where you are under the water motionless then tilt your head back only, rise to the surface to breathe, tilt it back and resubmerge. Hippos can do this without ever waking up so I assume some marine mammals can too.

Answer 4

Whales and dolphin just float and breath. I have had them float over to my boat and there breath stinks bad i mean every bad. It is like rotten fish bad.

Answer 5

they have to come to the top and blow. Sorta like a WW2 sub. They have a good hibernation technique. I sure some "Free Willie" people know. Have a good day. "Free Willie."

Answer 6

they can hold their breaths for a very long time for hours even

Answer 7

i think that they can hold in air. so when they go up to the top of the ocean the take a whole lot of air and keep it in.