Can Bees Teach Us About Sleep, Learning and Memory?

As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, we live in an exciting time for sleep research—it seems that every month, new studies are being published that provide us greater insight into the causes and treatments for various sleep disorders. And this month was no exception.

In a new article entitled, “Sleep-deprived bees have difficulty relearning”  in The Journal of Experimental Biology, researcher Randolf Menzel of the Institute of Biology in Berlin, Germany explains his four-decade study with bees, and what the results are teaching us about the effect of poor sleep on memory and learning.

The phases of sleep known as rapid eye movement (REM) and slow wave sleep (SWS) are involved in cognitive memory, such as learning motor skills and consciously remembering. As a result, restorative sleep not only rejuvenates us, it also helps consolidate memories.

To learn more about this relationship between the brain, sleep and memory consolidation, Menzel spent the last four decades studying honey bees. Why bees you ask? Well, according to Menzel, they are easy to train and well-motivated. Also, the human brain is too complex to dissect the neurocircuits that are linked to our memories. With bees, Menzel could identify the tiny circuits that control specific behaviors in their brains.

For the study, Menzel and his colleague, Lisa Beyaert, investigated the ability of bees to learn new routes from their beehive to a new feeding site, and second, the effect that loss of sleep would have on the bee's ability to learn the new route.

They provided a hive with a well-stocked feeder and trained the bees to visit the feeder and return home. To track the bees' flight during the experiments, the researchers used tiny radar antennas glued to the backs of the bees.

Once the researchers saw that the bees had memorized the route from the hive to home, they intercepted some of the bees at the feeder and transported them to a new location before releasing them again to find their way home. For the second part of the experiment, the researchers shook the bees awake every five minutes at night.

The researchers found that the insects could remember the way back to the hive after they had found it one time. However, when the scientists interrupted the bees’ sleep just after they had learned a new direct route, the bees were disoriented during the second attempt to return home.

Fewer than half the disoriented bees found their way back to the hive, and it took them twice as long as the bees with the usual amount of sleep. Menzel explained, "Without sleep, the bees are not able to consolidate the memory of the previous experiences with the new experience. Formation of the new memory is only possible during sleep.”

The well-rested bees, on the other hand, were able to find the direct way home after some brief training, but the sleep–deprived bees were disoriented and struggled to find their way. As in humans, sleep helps animals to store new experiences in such a way that earlier memories can be altered and supplemented. In other words, sleep helps us create new memories that override the previous memories.

So, what can bees teach us from Menzel’s study? That healthy, restorative sleep is vital to learning and consolidating memories. So get some good sleep tonight. That goes for you too, bees.

Read more about Menzel’s study in the article, “Sleep-deprived bees have difficulty relearning” in The Journal of Experimental Biology.