Top 5 Longest Sleeping Animals In The World

Similar to humans, all animals will need their rest. However, there are some animals out there that sleeps differently compared to humans. On average, a human requires around 8 hours of sleep at night but certain animals out there will need more hours of sleep while others can survive with just a few hours a day.

It all depends on their lifestyle, needs, habitat, and their usual diet. There are many factors that will influence how much sleep an animal needs. Sleep is crucial for all animals as, during these times, it will promote the healing and process of information that they have taken while they were awake.

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Younger animals will require much longer and adequate sleep for their growth and development. Don't be surprised that there are some animals out there that need a long duration of sleep in a day and this cycle keeps on repeating each day.

Here we would like to share with you the top 5 animals with the longest duration of sleep in the world.

5. Sloth

Sloth is well-known for being one of the slowest animals on land so it makes sense that this slow creature will always feel sleepy most of the time. This three-legged chocolate sloth or its scientific name, Bradypus variegatus happens to be one of the longest-sleeping animals out there.

On average, this sloth will sleep for almost 14 to 16 hours a day. Unlike other nocturnal animals, this sloth sleeps in both the morning and nighttime. They are only active for 2 to 3 hours a day before going to sleep.

When they sleep, they will be in two types of modes. This animal is capable of sleeping while being vigilant at the same time. As an alternative, their sleep behavior is with both their eyes closed and dangling down from a tree.

4. Giant Armadillos

This will be one of the biggest armadillo species out there with its scientific name, Priodontes Maximus. It is considered very powerful with its bodies protected by its exterior hard skeleton.

It is another nocturnal animal on this list that mostly spends its time asleep and it can sleep for as long as 16 to 18 hours a day. Basically, the gigantic armadillo spends most of its days inside its nest sleeping all day long.

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They dig their own hole using their sharp claws creating a space for the bed to spend their days inside.

3. European Porcupine

There are many species of porcupines in the world in which most of them have a habit of sleeping very long. Similar to bats, European porcupines are also active during nighttime so their spend most of the daylight sleeping.

Porcupines(including the European ones) sleep almost 18 hours each day. As nocturnal animals that stay active at night, this animal has little to no activity in daylight as you will definitely find them sleeping in their homes.

2. Little Brown Bat

All bat species are prone to long sleeping times during the day and remain active at night. But the little brown bat(Myotis lucifugus) in particular needs on average 19 hours of sleep a day especially for those in confinement.

Because this number is among the prison bat, it might be rather different in the wildlife. Nevertheless, this long sleeping time is considered one of the ways for bats to conserve their energy.

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This bat will be hanging upside down in buildings, caves, trees, and even on timbers.

1. Koala

Koalas or Phascolarctos cinereus can sleep between 18 to 22 hours a day and this is partly because of their usual diet. Koalas usually munch on white paperbark which is, in fact, poisonous so their digestive system finds it hard to process this food and can only obtain limited nutrients from them.

Sound oddly enough, am I right? Because of the food that they eat and the small amount of energy obtained from the food, koalas will spend most of their days sleeping after having their meal.

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