All of the creatures in this world need some rest to gain some energy for doing their daily activities. Having a bit of rest can restore our energy. This rest can be various, you can lay down doing nothing, relaxing, or sleeping. Whenever you feel tired, you can get some rest for a certain amount of time (1-3 hours). However, your body needs a complete recharge. Your inner organ needs some rest, too. So, do roaches sleep? Let us find out.
Circadian Rhythm in Creatures
Our body actually gives us some signals when we should have some rest, or when your body needs to be recharged. This signal is rhythmical, because it happens constantly every day for hours, depends on our activity. We can call this rhythmical pattern as Circadian rhythm.
Circadian rhythm is our living pattern that follows a day-night cycle. It affects our physical and mental behavior. To simply put, these rhythms are our sleep-wake cycle for 24 hours. They respond primarily to light and darkness in an organism’s body. Natural factors within the body produce circadian rhythms.
However, they also affected by signals from the environment. Most of all organisms have a light-based circadian rhythm. This light can adjust the molecular structure of our body based on our biological clock. Changing the light-dark cycles can speed up, slow down, or reset biological clocks as well as circadian rhythms depend on our routine.
Circadian rhythms follow our daily cycle, especially determines our sleep patterns. Our body can produce melatonin, a sleep hormone. This cycle plays an important role in hormone production. Our optic nerves receive the incoming light then forward the light to our brain as a signal to our body.
Here, circadian rhythms most likely are light-cycle, they depend on lights. When the light is less, your body tells your brain to produce melatonin so you get drowsy.
Do Cockroaches Sleep and Have A Circadian Rhythm as Well?
Well, do roaches sleep? The answer is yes, they do. Roaches are no exception. They have a circadian rhythm as well. For example, on the day they are hiding in a dark and moist place. And then, coming out at night for seeking food and water, and mating. Their rhythm is not based on lights. The activities of cockroaches are summarized in this scientific literature (cockroach bibliography).
In general, most of the cockroaches and other pests are awake during the four hours after lights-out. That is why they are often visible when it’s midnight, while you’re searching your refrigerator, grabbing for late-night snacks. When you turned off all the lights and go to bed, cockroaches consider them as a sign to make a move. That ensuing four hours of activity is enough for them to urge all their important business eluded the high probability of running into you.
Being nocturnal, cockroaches dislike daylight and disappear during the daytime for their resting period. They like dark, moist places and will hide just about anywhere that meets these criteria, including the undersides of equipment like stoves and refrigerators, underneath sinks, near plumbing, inside light switches, and behind wall paneling.
Since they have a flat body, make sure to look inside bookcases and furniture, inside the folds of curtains or other fabrics, in piles of old newspapers, paper bags or pet food bags, and amongst brooms or mops where they possibly hide.
Their hiding places are nearly endless and unnoticeable, provided they are dark and mostly undisturbed. Because of their thin bodies, they can fit their bodies into narrow spaces. Don’t forget to check underneath your rubber mats, carpets, behind wallpaper and within wall crevices, because these are convenient for cockroaches to hide.
How Do Roaches Sleep?
According to this study, cockroaches have three states of activity, which are; period of locomotion, the period of limb or antennae movement without locomotion, and period of freezing (immobility). Cockroaches are presumably to be active about four hours after dark and then enter an immobility state. This period is what we call “sleeping”.
Cockroaches go through a few stages of sleep. On the first stage, there is little movement in their legs and antenna, and after that, which is the final stage of sleep, cockroaches become immobile, and this is what we call sleep.
So, if you see them staying still but their antenna is moving, then remember they are not entirely asleep; however, if a cockroach is not moving an inch know that they are in their final stage of sleep, although the chances of seeing them in this condition are meager as they usually sleep in a dark and damp place.
Light may be inhibiting their locomotor activity. Cockroaches can die if they lack sleep. Insects don’t sleep in the same pattern that mammals do, but they are doing undergo periods of resting without sleep, where they sit very still and not interacting with their environment.
Sleep Deprivation in Cockroach
Usually, a cockroach can live within several days without sleep, but as the days pass by the necessity for sleep increases. Lack of sleep is dangerous for a cockroach because predators can eat them. A sleep-deprived cockroach has less response time, fatigue which might become a significant issue when trying to escape from a predator. They will make mistakes after they are sleep deprived.
A cockroach may be silent because of several reasons. Like, they can sense what’s happening in their surroundings. This sensing can sometimes take a long time, and cockroach may seem like they are actually dead. If a cockroach senses any predator, they can also become quiet to decide what they are going to do in that situation.
It is also possible that if you approach a cockroach, they will freeze for a moment to sense the situation to decide whether or not you are a threat or something they can ignore. This is a common phenomenon, and there are chances that you simply have already encountered this.
Do Roaches Sleep on Their Backs?
Do cockroaches sleep on their backs? Well, it is an interesting thing to be discussed. Sometimes, people will find that cockroaches on their backs and suddenly move when you approach them. Well, some of us may think that those roaches are sleeping. Well, here is the truth.
Surely, when you find the roaches on their back, it means that they actually are dying, poisoned, or even badly injured. So, that is why they are on their back. Here, if you have more time to observe, you will find that the cockroaches slowly become die. It may take minutes or even hours which depends on the level of their damages.
Normally, it is so hard for cockroaches to flip back once they are on their back. It is not easy for them, especially if you use some cockroaches control products. Those sprays can kill them at the instance. This thing makes the cockroaches will not be able to flip back.
To be concluded, So, do roaches sleep? The answer is yes but cockroaches do not sleep on their backs. If you find cockroaches on their back, it means that they are dying.