Has Any Species Evolved Beyond the Need for Sleep?

I think my dog has.

Serisouly, I have never seen an animal that sleeps any less than he does. If I didn't know better, I'd bet that he only sleeps because he simply can't find anything else better to do.

I swear, I so much as blink and he comes out of sleep like that!

Not to mention all the crap he gets into at all hours of the night.

I probably just need to train him more or something.

Originally posted by smallpeeps
Why hasn't sleep been conquered by evolution?

Most organisms do not sleep. Its only the large brainy ones that tend to, likesay toads and such. Single celled and other primitive organisms don't sleep. I've heard that sharks do not sleep either, at least not the ones that need to continously swim to pass water over their gills. I don't understand what cetaceans do, I very much doubt that they sit still and sleep, perhaps they go into a sort of reflexive mode where they swim but aren't really concious.

It would be nice to not have to sleep no?

However the subconcious mind is as important as the consious mind. The ancients, supposedly, didn't really distinguish between sleep and awake, at least not insofar as one being a more 'valid' reality. They were just sort of seperate.

I doubt any sophisticated mind can go without sleep. It causes psychosis in humans. Actually, simply not getting REM type sleep in causes psychosis. YOu can't not sleep altogether.

But why shoudl evolution work to get rid of sleep? Its not beneficial to do so. It'd require massive restructuring of the brain, which is too much of a 'hump' to get over.

And now, in honour of this thread, I'm gonna go to sleep.