Question: Do you really think humans will be able to hibernate like animals?

Mike Ambler answered on 5 Nov 2018:

Hi Kanishka, thanks for the question!

I have to be honest, I don’t know whether humans would be able to hibernate (or do something like it). That is what makes doing science fun but also frustrating – you never know whether it will work!

What is interesting is that hibernation is something we see in so many different types of animal, it might be a ‘basic’ function that we humans just don’t really use any more.. For example, every class of vertebrate (that’s animals with a back bone) has some animals that can hibernate. That means there are birds, fish, amphibians (frogs etc), reptiles and of course mammals that can hibernate.

There are even some primates that hibernate (lemurs and slow loris), and they are like distant cousins of humans: we share about 90% the same genes.

Even humans get colder and become still during certain parts of sleep – so maybe if we could turn that system on more we could get a hibernation in humans.

The advantage of hibernating is that it saves energy. A bit like when the TV or computer goes into standby or sleep mode, it uses less electricity. It’s the same for animals that hibernate, it allows them to survive when there is very little food around (or if it is too cold to go out and find food).

I am trying to understand how animals are able to hibernate to see whether it might be possible to use drugs to make humans do something similar: this might help them survive when they are very sick, and it could also help when we send people to mars!