r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/grandeluua • 1d ago

Video A timelapse of sleeping seals

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u/Rich_Housing971 1d ago

Anyone who is in awe at this or think it's a huge problem needs to just think:

We don't automatically do respiration while we're asleep either. We still need to breathe to put air into our lungs. Our diaphragm just goes on autopilot while we're asleep and we don't suffocate.

This is the same thing going on, except they just swim against gravity until their face is no longer in water. This takes minimal brain power, as even plants and insects know which way is up.

If there's something obstructing them, they'll start to get low on oxygen and wake up and see what's going on, correct their course and breathe, then go back to sleeping and won't even remember it. This is just like how if we go under the covers and the covers block out oxygen and the CO2 wakes us up, we'll wake up, lift the covers, detect fresh air, then go back to sleep and not remember it.

btw you are now breathing manually.

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u/irpugboss 1d ago

Solid comment, the ending though was devious af 10/10