Sleep and dreams have always been something fascinating and we struggle to understand: we do not yet know everything about rest and it is not clear why we dream.
During sleep, more or less strange phenomena occur: some of us talk, others get upset, someone suffers from sleepwalking.
However, the octopus definitely beats all of us, because this animal
even changes colour during rest and does so in relation to what it is dreaming
about.
Marine biologist David Scheel closely observed the behaviour of a
captive octopus and recorded the colour changes of the animal during sleep in a
video.
In the short documentary entitled "Octopus: Making Contact"
the colour changes of the octopus are clearly visible, which from white first
turns yellow, then gradually darkens until it takes on a very dark hue and
finally turns white again.
According to the biologist, the variation in the colouring of the
octopus is due to the dreamlike activity of the mollusk. Scheel believes that
during sleep the marine creature was dreaming of hunting and that this caused a
change in the colour of his body, which went from white to black. It is a
phenomenon that occurs when the octopus is awake and is really hunting, to
blend in with the seabed and not attract the attention of the prey to itself.
“At this moment he sleeps, dreams of a crab and his colour starts to
change a little, it becomes darker. [...] is his way of blending in with the
environment [...] is truly fascinating and, yes, he is dreaming," explains
Scheel in the video.
Extraordinary images that demonstrate how nature is always able to
surprise us, especially the one that populates the seabed, an immense and
mysterious ecosystem.
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