this experiment claims to show that
(1) when rats are sleep-deprived, small populations of rat brain neurons can fall asleep while the rest of the rat is awake, and
(2) this may correspond to performance degradation
summary:
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/04/if-you-only-feel-half-awake-you-probably-are.ars
article:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v472/n7344/full/nature10009.html
i haven’t read the actual article yet…