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Top 9 Animals That Sleep the Most

Let's learn all the records of animals that sleep all day!

There are animals that nap under water or even turn off their brains! Some even sleep for 20 hours a day! Sounds great, right? At night, we turn left or right, or sleep on our backs or bellies. There is a lot more variety in the animal kingdom.

In this article, you’ll find out which animals hold records for sleeping the longest. You will also learn about animals that don't sleep very much and surprising sleeping techniques in the animal kingdom!

Koala Koala - Photo: Andywak/Shutterstock

Top 9 Animals That Sleep the Most

AnimalSleep per day
Big Brown Bat 20 hours
Sloth 15-20 hours
Hedgehog 18-20 hours
Armadillo 18,5 hours
Cat 16 hours
Koala 14 hours
Cheetah 12 hours
Chimpanzee 10 hours
Gorilla 10 hours

Top 4 Animals That Sleep Very Little

No time to sleep? If we only slept for three hours a day, we would develop serious health problems.


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AnimalSleep per day
Horse 3 hours
Wasp 2-3 hours
Giraffe 1-2 hours
Okapi 30 seconds

Top 11 Funny Sleeping Habits

1.

Hippos and Sea Cows... Just Let Themselves Sink Down

Blub blub! Sleeping under water? It might be hard for us to imagine, but it’s quite normal for animals. Many doze in caves or rocky crevices. The following animal has come up with a clever trick.

Hippos love spending time in water. Everyone knows that. They don’t take to land to sleep, they just let their 4 ton weight sink to the bottom and snooze there under the water. At least nobody can hear them snore down there! Sea cows don’t just sleep under water, they do it upside down. Doesn’t it make them sick? Both have to surface now and then to breathe.

Hippo Hippo - Photo: Redchanka/Shutterstock


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2.

Sharks Are On Standby

Some sharks have to constantly keep swimming, because they don’t get any oxygen if no water flows through their gills. To make sure they get a good sleep, they reduce their brain function. You could say that they put themselves on “standby mode”.

3.

Dolphins Just Switch Off

If there were a “Guinness book of weird sleeping habits”, dolphins would definitely be in it. These animals sleep with half of their brains, with the other half still switched on. After one to two hours, they switch sides and sleep with the other side. This technique would be great in school. Tip: put the left half of your brain to sleep during math as you only need the right to add up! Dolphins always keep one eye open (literally) so they can look after one another. If a dolphin forgets to breathe, it will get a little nudge from its friends.

Dolphin Dolphin - Photo: vkilikov/Shutterstock


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