Do plants “sleep”?

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I can’t think of an animal that doesn’t have some kind of day/night cycle. I’d be surprised if it didn’t impact almost every living thing in some way. Plants generally photosynthesize, which means they are probably also highly in sync with cycles of the sun, but what do they do at night? Is that when they move nutrients around? Make complex starches? Do other cool stuff? Do they sleep?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

One general term for plants’ movements in response to the onset of darkness is [nyctinasty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctinasty); it can be considered a plant version of sleeping.

Most plants don’t actually have full-on nyctinastic movements. Instead of moving in response to darkness, though, plants do have circadian rhythms similar to ours that [regulate their cells’ biological activities](https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1469-8137.2003.00895.x).

Timelapse photography makes it easier to see the motions of plants through day and night. Here’s a good timelapse of a *Calathea* [closing up for the night](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTt5AFyJYfc), and then opening again to prepare for the morning.

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