Study
Sleep deprivation impairs precision of waggle dance signaling in honey bees
Klein, Barrett A.; Klein, Arno; Wray, Margaret K.; Mueller, Ulrich G.; Seeley, Thomas D.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010
Individual bees were kept awake overnight using a magnetically actuated device that gently disturbed them, while controls were disturbed in ways that did not prevent rest. Their waggle dances were then filmed and measured.
- Studied in
- Apis mellifera
- Sample size
- individually marked foragers in observation hives
Sleep-deprived bees produced dances with a noticeably less precise directional component.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Sleep in honey bees supports performance in a socially transmitted signal, much as sleep supports communication and motor precision in vertebrates.
How NatureHQ reads it
Insects have rest states with the hallmarks of sleep, and this study shows those states matter: disrupt them and a bee's directions to its colleagues get sloppier. That is a functional consequence, which is more informative than the observation that bees hold still at night.
- Physical disturbance is a blunt instrument and may stress the animal in other ways.
- Directional precision is one measure among several that could have been affected.
A tired bee gives worse directions
Sleep loss degrades performance in mammals. Is there anything measurable to degrade in an insect?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesPublished in PNAS.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1009439108
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref and OpenAlex on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.