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人们对睡眠的认识，几乎都来自哺乳动物、鸟类等脊椎动物。10 月 27 日，德国波恩大学的研究团队在《美国国家科学院院刊》（PNAS）发表研究：他们连续多日观察澳大利亚跳蛛 Portia fimbriata，发现它不仅会真正睡觉，而且睡眠能分为两个阶段，其中一个阶段会出现眼睛移动和肌肉抽动，类似人类的快速眼动（REM）睡眠。文章先介绍这种以其他蜘蛛为食、会模仿落网昆虫的聪明猎手，再说明研究者怎样用红外摄像、声音刺激和打断睡眠后的“补觉”现象来区分睡眠与单纯静止，随后交代研究无法测量脑部活动的局限，最后谈到这项发现对理解睡眠演化的意义和团队的后续计划。阅读时可留意 suggests、may、does not prove 等表达如何区分研究发现与尚未证实的推测。

正文

Most of what scientists know about sleep comes from animals with backbones, such as mammals and birds. But a new study from the University of Bonn in Germany suggests that a small spider may also sleep in two different stages. One of them looks a lot like REM sleep, the stage in which people move their eyes quickly and often have vivid dreams.

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科学家对睡眠的了解，大多来自哺乳动物和鸟类等有脊椎的动物。但德国波恩大学的一项新研究表明，一种小蜘蛛的睡眠也可能分为两个不同阶段。其中一个阶段很像快速眼动（REM）睡眠——人在这一阶段眼睛会快速移动，而且常常做生动的梦。

The spider in the study is Portia fimbriata, an Australian jumping spider. A fully grown one is only about the size of a one-euro coin, but it is a clever hunter. Instead of catching insects, it hunts other spiders. For example, it can shake a web in the same way as a trapped insect, so the owner of the web comes closer and becomes its next meal. Because of skills like this, scientists think the spider may be good at learning, which makes it an interesting animal for sleep research.

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研究中的蜘蛛是一种名为 Portia fimbriata 的澳大利亚跳蛛。成年个体只有一枚一欧元硬币那么大，却是一名聪明的猎手。它不捕食昆虫，而是捕食其他蜘蛛。例如，它能像被困的昆虫那样摇动蛛网，让网的主人靠近，进而成为它的下一顿美餐。正因为有这样的本领，科学家认为这种蜘蛛可能善于学习，这也使它成为睡眠研究中很有意思的对象。

To study it, the team kept each spider in a small plastic dish, 12 centimetres wide, and filmed it for several days and nights under different lighting. At night, they used infrared cameras so that they could watch without turning on normal lights. The videos showed how the spiders rested, the positions they slept in, and short periods when their eyes moved and their legs twitched.

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为了研究它，团队把每只蜘蛛分别放进一个直径 12 厘米的小塑料盘里，在不同光照条件下连续拍摄了好几个日夜。夜间，他们使用红外摄像机，这样无需打开普通灯光也能观察。录像显示了蜘蛛如何休息、以什么姿势睡觉，以及一些眼睛移动、腿部抽动的短暂时段。

Sitting still, however, is not the same as sleeping. So the researchers played sounds and measured how quickly the spiders reacted. They also woke some spiders up during the night. Afterwards, these spiders slept more, just as tired people often do after a bad night. Together, the tests showed that the spiders‘ rest was real, controlled sleep with two clear stages.

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然而，一动不动并不等于在睡觉。因此，研究人员播放声音，测量蜘蛛作出反应的速度。他们还在夜里把一些蜘蛛弄醒。之后，这些蜘蛛睡得更多，就像人在一夜没睡好后常常会补觉一样。这些测试共同表明，蜘蛛的休息是真正的、受调节的睡眠，并且有两个清晰的阶段。

The work was not easy. The scientists could not measure the spiders‘ brain activity, so they had to rely only on behaviour. That meant long, detailed videos and huge amounts of data. They were also careful not to read too much into the movements. Seeing REM-like twitches does not prove that spiders dream.

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这项工作并不容易。科学家无法测量蜘蛛的脑部活动，只能完全依靠行为来判断。这意味着需要拍摄又长又细致的录像，并处理海量数据。他们也很谨慎，不对这些动作作过度解读。看到类似 REM 的抽动，并不能证明蜘蛛会做梦。

Even so, the researchers say the results could help explain how and why different kinds of sleep developed in animals. They argue that sleep should be studied in a wider range of creatures, including those with very different nervous systems. Next, they plan to compare many kinds of spiders, to look at spiders in the wild as well as in the lab, and to test whether bright light at night disturbs their sleep. Whether spiders dream remains unknown, but their nights now look much more interesting.

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尽管如此，研究人员表示，这些结果可能有助于解释动物身上不同类型的睡眠是如何以及为何形成的。他们主张，应在更多种类的生物中研究睡眠，包括神经系统与人类差别很大的动物。接下来，他们计划比较多种蜘蛛，既观察实验室里的蜘蛛也观察野外的蜘蛛，并检验夜间的明亮灯光是否会干扰它们的睡眠。蜘蛛是否会做梦仍是未知数，但它们的夜晚如今看起来有趣多了。

新闻来源

• University of Bonn · How deeply do spiders sleep? (27 Oct 2026)
• ScienceDaily · Do spiders dream? Scientists just found a surprising clue (27 Oct 2026)
• PNAS · Behavioral evidence for two-stage sleep in spiders (2026)

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