To tease out the relationships between sleep, starvation and survival, the researchers deprived fruit flies of both food and sleep. They found that starving fruit flies spent more time awake than satiated flies did. The researchers also tested the flies' saliva for enzymes that signal sleepiness and measured the flies' ability to associate a light with an unpleasant stimulus. Both tests showed that the starving flies were alert, not sleepy.

為了找到睡眠、饑餓和生存之間的關(guān)系，研究人員同時(shí)剝奪了果蠅的食物和睡眠。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，饑餓的果蠅比吃飽的果蠅清醒的時(shí)間長(zhǎng)。研究人員還檢測(cè)了果蠅唾液中顯示困倦程度的酶，還測(cè)試了果蠅將光亮與令人不快的刺激聯(lián)系起來(lái)的能力。兩種測(cè)試結(jié)果均表明饑餓的果蠅是清醒的，沒(méi)有睡意。