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The Most Extreme Sleeping Hours Among Animals
Do you sleep as much as a brown bat or aslittle as a goat? And how do you know? Let's figure it out and check which creaturesare the most famous sleepyheads, and which can spend months without rest! And how about the animal that doesn’t sleepat all! (um, New Yorkers? Heh heh) 1. Snails - up to several years. These slimy shelled critters can slumber forup to 15 hours at a time, falling in and out of sleep. After that, a snail can be active for another30 hours. But in extreme conditions (when it gets toodry), snails can fall asleep for several years. 2. Frogs - the whole winter. Frogs are equipped with some weird animalantifreeze – ice crystals forming under their skin and in their body cavities don'tfaze them! Frogs don't breathe, and their hearts don'tbeat throughout the cold winter months until spring comes. They spend that time sleeping nonstop - well,kind of. They may have their eyes closed, but theystill remain constantly alert. 3. Pythons – up to 23 hours. These massive snakes have no eyelids, whichmakes it difficult to say when they're asleep. They rarely eat, usually just once a week– the rest of the time they spend digesting their meals, which requires loads of energy. That's why it's not unusual for a python tosleep for 18 to 23 hours and wake up only to take a short evening stroll….er, makethat slither. 4. Koalas - 22 hours. These cute furballs aren't lazy, they justneed a lot of energy to digest their high-fiber food! By the way, koalas' favorite sleeping positionis either being nestled in a tree fork or hanging from there. 5. Little Brown Bat - 20 hours. Being nocturnal (active at night), these flyingmicrobats snooze upside down for up to 20 hours a day. By the way, this odd sleeping position makesit easier for them to take off – their wings are otherwise too weak to lift them up. 6. Walruses - up to 19 hours. That’s if they’re deep asleep onshore. But things are very different when walrusesare in the water. They can go for up to 84 hours without sleep! From time to time, they hold their breathfor 5 minutes or so and catch a quick nap underwater. For that, they just bite onto an ice sheetwith their teeth so that they don’t drift away. 7. Giant Armadillo - 18 hours. No one would call giant armadillos socialcreatures. They spend most of their time sleeping intheir burrows. The only reason armadillos might get togetheris to keep warm or find a mate. 8. North American Opossum – also 18 hours. But the interesting thing is that they can“play possum” for up to 4 hours! And they’re not really playing – the poorthings get so scared, they pass out from shock. One more thing: even though they’re oftenpictured hanging by their tails from a tree branch, only baby opossums can do that. Adults are too heavy to support their ownweight for longer than a couple of minutes. 9. Owl Monkey (aka Night Monkey) - 17 hours. These animals sleep 70% of the day, usuallyfrom sunrise to sunset. Only after it gets dark, monkeys get out oftheir shelters to get some food and don't stop feeding until the sun is about to rise. Just like me on my hungry nights... 10. Tigers - 16 hours. These mighty predators spend more than 65%of their time slumbering! They don't think twice when choosing a suitableplace for rest: rocks, grass, somewhere near their prey - anything will do. 11. Squirrels - 15 hours. These cute animals look playful and mega-active,but this appearance is partially deceptive. Most of their time, about 60% of the day,squirrels spend asleep! Tree squirrels build special nests – calleddreys – from twigs, branches, and leaves and hibernate there. 12. Cats - 12 to 16 hours. Even though it might be challenging to catchyour sleepy cat in-between its naps, your feline friend doesn't sleep THAT much. The trick is that cats prefer being activebetween dusk and dawn, which is the time you spend asleep. So, you just don't cross paths with your pet! (But you might be scared wide awake by theruckus they cause at 3AM!) 13. Frigatebirds - 12 hours or 45 minutes. When this bird is on land, it has an unusualsleeping pattern. Frigatebirds sleep for one minute, then wakeup only to fall asleep again. That repeats until these 1-minute naps addup to 12 hours. But when these birds are flying, they sleeponly 45 minutes a day, usually after dark and in tiny 10-second bursts. 14. Meerkats - 10 to 12 hours. When these funny little creatures sleep, theygather together in heaps. This way, the animals keep warm and protectthe leaders, who always rest at the bottom of the pile. 15. Otters - 11 hours. Otters need a lot of sleep, even though it'snot always safe for them because of predators. Plus, they could drift away while napping. That's why otters often fall asleep on theirbacks on the water’s surface. They all hold hands in groups so that nobodygets carried away by the current! That’s right, they “otter” to hold onto each other… 16. Sloths - 10 hours. I know, I know, sloths have a reputation theyneed to maintain, and rumor has it that they sleep 15 to 19 hours a day! That's true about sloths in captivity. Wild sloths rarely sleep more than 10 hoursa day. Being the slowest mammal in the world, thesloth needs a lot of time to find food and eat it. 17. Humans - 6 to 8 hours. Yep, we spend up to 25 years (1/3!) of ourlives switched off. Not unless you’re a baby – then you’dbe up there with tigers in the 16-hour range! Or you might be a workaholic and find yourselffurther down on the list. Hmmm… Let’s see! 18. Sheep and goats - 4 hours. These animals sleep 4 hours a night but notat once. They take several naps with breaks in between. When sheep and goats sleep, they huddle togetherto stay warm and protect themselves. They also take turns watching for predators. 19. Ants - 4 to 5 hours. These insects have lots of 1-minute powernaps during the day, which totals to about 5 hours. The queen, though, can enjoy sleep much longer,for up to 9 hours a day. Well, she IS royalty after all… 20. Elephants - 3 to 4 hours. Elephants are massive, and they have to spendalmost 19 hours a day stuffing their bodies with food. When they sleep, they do it either standingup, leaning against a tree, or lying down on their side. But if they do lie down, they can't stay thatway for more than half an hour. Otherwise, they might crush their innards! 21. Giraffes - 30 minutes. Giraffes don't laze around: they only getabout half an hour, at most, to avoid predators. This sleep is divided into several 5-minutenaps taken throughout the day. Being tall, lanky things, giraffes have difficultiesfinding a comfortable sleeping position. That's why they usually catch some z's standingup. But sometimes, they do get down on the groundand curl up in the most adorably awkward limby ball you’ll ever see. 22. Whales - 1 hour. Sperm whales have an amazing sleeping position:they bobble vertically near the water’s surface. They have short regular periods of deep sleepthat add up to a bit more than 1 hour a day. These giants don't breathe or move duringtheir naps. 23. Orca Calves – not until their older! Baby orcas don't sleep at all during the firstweeks or sometimes even months of their lives. They keep swimming around while their parentsare resting. It keeps them warm and protects them againstpredators. 24. Dolphins - never. Well, kind of. Dolphins do enter periods of deep sleep called"logging" (mostly because when a dolphin is in this state, it resembles a log floatingon the water). But even so, dolphins shut down just halfof their brain and close only the eye that's opposite to the powered-down hemisphere. This way, they're always alert and can watchout for trouble! Glad I’m not a dolphin… Whale, I guess I “otter” get some sleepnow, but before I go… If you learned something new today, then givethe video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other videos I think you'llenjoy. Just click to the left or right, and stayon the Bright Side of life!
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