A blog about Ruth Winding's handmade menagerie.

Cute mouse sleeping in a nutshell..greeting card.

Studying mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins have fortified evidence that a key purpose of sleep is to recalibrate the brain cells responsible for learning and memory so the animals can “solidify” lessons learned and use them when they awaken — in the case of nocturnal mice, the next evening.

The tiny creature was found tucked up in a nest box near Saltash, Cornwall, after spending weeks foraging for food to prepare it for its months of hibernation.

Another sleeping dormouse Credit: J. Stuart