"Interacting Circadian and Homeostatic Processes with Opportunity Cost: A Mathematical Model of Sleep with Application to Two Mammalian Species"

This paper introduces a new model of sleep for mammals. It extends the classic ‘two-process’ model of sleep to account for differences in external circumstances. We apply this model to previously-collected data on elephants and sloths, comparing sleep patterns in the wild with sleep patterns in captivity. We find that the model does very well in explaining sleeping patterns for both types of animals, in both the captive state and in the wild state.

• James H. Cardon
• Eric R. Eide
• Kerk L. Phillips
• Mark H. Showalter

The following copyright license restrictions apply:

Copyright: K. Phillips. Feel free to copy, modify and use at your own risk. However, you are not allowed to sell this software or otherwise impinge on its free distribution.

Ths repository contains four sets of Python code for 5 parameter cases (a-e).

• GSleepElephantSimpleCx.py
• GSleepElephantSimpleWx.py
• GSleepSlothSimpleCx.py
• GSleepSlothSimpleWx.py

where x takes on values of a, b, c, d & e a is the benchmark case, and b-e are used for sensitivity analysis

These are the calibrations of the generalized utility model of sleep for elephants and three-toed sloths in captivity and in the wild. Internal documentation explains how the calibration and simulation are performed.

A copy of the working paper is also included.

Finally, data from Tobler (1992) and Gravett et al (2017) on sleep patterns of elephants is included in an Excel spreadsheet.