Why Don't Humans Hibernate?

Wake me up when spring is here
↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓

Nature has had to come up with some crazy ways to survive harsh winters. But none are weirder than hibernation. Turns out there is more than one kind of hibernation, and studying all these ways that life slows down in the cold might help humans one day become an interplanetary species.

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[aayanscreativelab]

As someone who hasn’t used their brain in The past few years, humans do hibernate, thank you very much.

[traian]

In the olden days, in Europe, in the mountain villages, people used to sleep 20 hours a day during winter, barely staying awake to get something to eat and take care of the necessities. Not quite hibernation, but definitely a slowing down of the metabolism.

[dragonfury]

The mitochondria (THE POWERHOUSE OF THE CELL *thunder*) comeback was amazing

[woodencoyote]

"Nap like a fat bear among the stars" is an dream we can all get behind.

[oOcattyOo]

I ask myself this question every day of winter

[thegamingpigeon]

I love the conclusion that essentially, we're too smart to hibernate lol

[amypondhikes]

The frogs that freeze through during winter are mind blowing. Anti-freeze blood they thaw and seem to just reanimate. I love it.

[willryan]

I spent last winter (December thru to April) in the hospital on strict bed rest. I basically slept most of the time. Closest I've gotten to hibernating

[elvenkind]

I'm at my 45th winter here in Norway and do get into a kind of mental hibernation during winter. Then after 6-7 months of cold, it's like someone plug me into an electric socket and with warmth, flowers, songbirds and life everywhere again, it's like levitating weightless above ground when I'm outside, feeling a deep euphoria. The lambs, when they are let out after a long winter, they jump around with the back legs up into the air. It's called being "vårkåt" here, or "spring horny".

[pokechatter]

You mention the benefit of decreased aging…but do any of the species that hibernate have especially long lifespans?

[marlabrowne]

I live in Phoenix. I’d like to sleep through summer!

[Schlossbauer]

I love the humor in the editing ❤
Had a loud laugh a couple of times with this one, whilst joe was just explaining.

But overall the way how captivating and entertaining you people make these videos is just amazing.
Big thanks for that :)

[matthewboire]

As a Canadian, I would love to hibernate

[alexanderstone]

Some freshwater turtles have more awesome way of coping with winter. Ice prevents the exchange of gasses between the water and air, thus slowly depleting the dissolved oxygen level in a pond. Therefore Painted Turtles not only slow their metabolism, but convert it into being entirely anaerobic. Specifically they use lactic acid fermentation to survive in the absence of oxygen. If that sounds familiar, it's because our own muscle cells do this when we can't deliver oxygen to them quickly enough, but in the aforementioned conditions these turtles use it for everything (well, everything that the turtle is still using with its slowed metabolism). Turtles avoid fatal acidosis by using their shell to buffer the lactic acid.

[bobikbear]

4:28 the Three body problem joke hits hard

[randyhawks]

I had a major stroke and was in a coma for about a week, the thing about being in a coma is that you still age even though I didn't appearance any time lost. What good is it for space travel if you hibernate so you don't get bored only to find out you just slept your life away.

[dragonpjb]

Human hibernation does happen occasionally. The triggers just tend to be weird and extreme.

[ohadish]

6:45 "i didnt know we still had that animation" I FRICKING HATE YOU FOR BRINGING IT BACK

like fr why do i remember it?? it is a good animation but still 😭😭😭

[TomWatkeys]

I grew up in a sunny part of the southern hemisphere (Durban, South Africa) with basically year round sun, dry sunny winters etc... in my first UK winter, i could absolutely comfirm that without the world being the way it is (with constant external communication and expectation to be productive every singe day) i could easily have slept for 20 hours a day with the sudden perceived lack of usual daylight resources

[oscard.lisboa]

5:21 the frogs Aang got for Katara and Sokka