Over the course of 12 hours, an octopus only sleeps, on average, a total of around 2 hrs intermittently! Roughly 5 minutes out of these 2 hours is their active sleep (like our REM cycle) with the majority being quiet sleep. That means an octopus spends less than 1% of its time in the active sleep state.
Octopuses are thought to undergo two different stages of sleep: “quiet sleep” and “active sleep”, the latter of which involves twitching body parts and rapid changes in the texture and patterning of the skin.
'Quiet' sleep in octopuses is rhythmically interrupted by approximately 60-s bouts of pronounced body movements and rapid changes in skin patterning and texture6.
The researchers found the brain activity of octopuses during the quiet sleep stage closely resembled brain wave patterns in mammal brains during non-REM sleep. During octopus quiet sleep, the Octopus laqueus closed their eyes, adopted a flat resting posture and a uniformly white skin pattern.
While most octopuses hunt at night, this species spends its days stalking crabs, clams and fishes. Because it forages during daylight, it has exceptional camouflage skills, and can transform its skin into long, lumpy ridges, mimicking nearby corals, rocks or algae.
Over the course of 12 hours, an octopus only sleeps, on average, a total of around 2 hrs intermittently! Roughly 5 minutes out of these 2 hours is their active sleep (like our REM cycle) with the majority being quiet sleep. That means an octopus spends less than 1% of its time in the active sleep state.
Octopuses can sometimes suffer from autophagy, or self-cannibalism. That is what is described as "eating its own arms." This is caused by stress. A stressed animal is not a healthy animal and is open to infection. It is believed that it is caused by a virus/bacteria which can manage to take hold on a stressed octopus.
With this in mind, they may get grumpy or angry by other animals attempting to socialize with them. According to a new study published in the journal Current Biology, octopuses may change their color to signal aggression towards another animal, different species or not, and perhaps even to initiate a fight.
Invertebrates such as octopuses may experience other emotions such as curiosity in exploration, affection for individuals, or excitement in anticipation of a future reward."
There is a consensus in the field of animal sentience that octopuses are conscious beings — that they can feel pain and actively try to avoid it.
Octopuses have two stages of sleep, including an active one in which they appear to dream, according to one of the most conclusive studies of their brainwaves and skin patterns yet.
The rest are in the doughnut-shaped brain, which is wrapped around the oesophagus and located in the octopus's head. Octopuses have demonstrated intelligence in a number of ways, says Jon. 'In experiments they've solved mazes and completed tricky tasks to get food rewards.
Among professional aquarists, octopuses have a reputation as highly individualistic animals that require frequent mental stimulation, often enjoy physical contact, and strongly prefer some humans over others, squirting water at one person playfully, while soaking another in what seems like a rebuke.
Octopuses like Inky are capable of complex thought processes, have long-term memories, use tools, learn through observation, and even have the capacity to feel bored.
Her camera captured the curious cephalopod drawing closer and closer, its tentacles widening until it fully embraced her. “It was just crawling on my camera, crawling on my lips, giving me a hug. These huge tentacles were up over my face and mask,” Humphreys said.
The octopus would not be able to survive because that is the heart that provides the whole body with blood, which also helps deliver important oxygen around the body. If you thought three hearts was a lot, you might be even more surprised to learn about the hagfish, which looks kind of like a slimy, sticky eel.
This study has found that octopuses, one of the most intelligent sea creatures, throw punches at other fish. New research has revealed that octopuses often throw punches when they're hunting alongside other fish.
Using detailed measurements of spontaneous pain-associated behaviors and neural activity, Crook has identified three lines of evidence that all indicate octopuses are capable of feeling negative emotional states when confronted with pain.
LPSOs mate as often as daily, and females lay eggs over months; in most other species, females die after raising one brood. And though most octopuses couple warily, at arm's length, LPSOs mate with the beaks on their undersides pressed together, as if kissing (above).
Pull away quickly.
In many cases, a human can escape from the grasp of a small-to-medium sized octopus by just swimming away.
It is unwise to get on the wrong side of an octopus: those grudges can last a surprisingly long time.
Octopuses in a more stimulating environment, with larger tanks, crushed coral, plants and a view to a live fish in a nearby tank appeared healthier and happier. So your average fish tank setup probably isn't going to cut it for an octopus. Many species of octopus are also nocturnal.
Octopus feel and remember pain
Octopus feel pain and they feel themselves being chopped up and eaten alive. In an article published by Vice they interviewed Jennifer Mather, PhD, an expert in the behaviour of octopus and squid at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta.
There is absolutely no doubt that they feel pain. The octopus has a nervous system which is much more distributed than ours. If you look at us, most of our neurons are in our brain, and for the octopus, three-fifths of its neurons are in its arms.