Yes, I had thought of those specific examples myself. What good can sleep
serve for a predator?
And why does sleep seem necessary even when it heals no physiological function?
The explanation that I have for either of these questions is that sleep evolved
as previously described in animals which were characteristically prey. That
is, sleep perhaps evolved into mammals during the paleolithic era when they
were without exception prey, and not predator. If such was the case, then
the preadaptive functions of sleep could easily have changed during speciation
of mammals.
The question still remains: why, in such circumstances, would sleep behavior
be so universal? While my answer is still quite vague, it only makes sense to
say that evolutionary processes must have found sleep very useful.
JTB
