#ANIMALS THAT DONT SLEEP SERIES#

They take a series of short power naps, just several minutes at a time, throughout the day. Part of the difficulty monitoring giraffe sleep stems from their exceptionally strange sleeping pattern. But, that’s likely only referring to deep sleep, considering a major study in 1996 that pegged their total shut-eye closer to 4.5 hours per 24-hour period. One commonly cited statistic estimates they sleep only 30 minutes per day. The tallest animal on earth, giraffes, have often been touted as the mammal that sleeps least of all, despite weighing up to 3,000 pounds. “It’s about adaptation.” To Sleep or Not to Sleep Whether you examine life in the African savanna, across the oceans or high in the trees of Australia, you’ll find major variations in sleep postures as well as the amount of daily rest needed in each species.īasic survival has likely driven different animals to develop their unique sleep habits, says Tom Stalf, president and CEO of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

Style of sleep varies greatly across the animal kingdom. What we do know is that essentially all animals rest - though detailed studies have mostly taken place in mammals and birds. So, the jury is still out on the why behind sleep. But back in 2017, scientists had learned that the upside-down jellyfish also appears to sleep, despite the lack of a brain or central nervous system. Maybe it helps restore DNA damage in neurons, as suggested by a Nature study last year. Ongoing research poses many theories, often related to memory generation or learning. Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us.Strange as it may sound, we still haven’t pinpointed why exactly humans and other animals sleep. This might mean that they are dreaming, but again, it is hard to know for sure. You might have seen pet cats and dogs moving a little while they sleep, as if they are chasing other animals. We also don’t know whether other animals dream, like we do. For example, sea sponges are animals, but it would be tricky to tell whether they are sleeping or even awake! Some animals are difficult to study, too. Scientists haven’t studied sleep in all animals yet, so we can’t be certain that all animals sleep. There are also many other things that we don’t know about sleep. We still don’t know why exactly animals first started sleeping, though.Ĭurious Kids: Why do we always fall asleep in cars? Because so many different animals sleep, it seems to be very important. We know that birds, reptiles, frogs and fish sleep, too. We know that lots of animals, maybe all animals, sleep. They can rest like this for half an hour or more, but they don’t drown because they can hold their breath for much longer than we can. People have also seen whales floating just under the water’s surface, which might be another way that whales sleep.

Whales don’t drown when they sleep because, like dolphins, they can swim to the surface of the water while they sleep. So even when an animal looks like it’s awake, it might actually be sleeping. Some birds can even fly while they are asleep, and dolphins can sleep while swimming. Ostriches sleep with their eyes open and their heads held high above the ground. Cows stand and chew their cud while they sleep. While most animals sleep like this, relaxed and unmoving, some animals sleep quite differently.

Scientists don’t know much about sleep in other snails yet, but they possibly sleep in a similar way. Although this might not seem particularly relaxing, their shells do hang away from their body, and they keep their tentacles inside their shell. Pond snails use things like rocks or the side of their aquarium as their bed, attaching themselves while they sleep. All of this is true for people, too.Ĭurious Kids: Why do our brains freak us out with scary dreams? If they don’t get enough sleep, they sleep more later (and more deeply) to make up for it. Most animals also seem to need a certain amount of sleep every day. If you disturb a sleeping animal, though, you can still wake them up quickly. A sleeping animal doesn’t notice everything happening around them. There are a few things that, together, help us to tell whether an animal is asleep.

Animals that dont sleep