Sleep is essential for all animals, but little is known about how it changes in response to the environment—especially in reptiles and amphibians. The SLEEPCHANGE project set out to explore how these animals’ sleep patterns are affected by global challenges such as urbanization and biological invasions (when species are spread beyond their natural range to new areas by humans). Using new, tiny sleep-tracking devices, the project aims to uncover how different environmental pressures—like city lights or new habitats—alter how much and how well animals sleep. By combining research from ecology, neuroscience, and physiology, SLEEPCHANGE hopes to reveal how the natural world shapes sleep and how animals may adapt as their environments change. The project focused on four main research goals. First, it explored the impact of urbanization, focusing on Indian rock agamas and South African chameleons to understand how city life, artificial night light, and habitat changes affect sleep patterns, physiology, and behavior. Second, the project examined how short-term environmental changes, such as the spread of invasive species, might alter sleep—for example, whether animals moving into new territories sleep less. Third, the project assessed whether changes in sleep are caused by heritable genetic differences, using parent and offspring frogs in controlled settings. Finally, it looked at how sleep responds to long-term changes, such as lower or higher predation risk, by studying lizards and frogs. Together, these studies offer new insights into how animals sleep and adapt in a rapidly changing world.
