Science

Top 7 Animals That Sleep The Least

June 07, 2023
Every living creature on this planet will require sleep throughout the day as it is a crucial process of growth and repair. Sleep is a process to rest our physical and mental health to ensure that our body will be fully functional the moment we wake up.

According to studies, a human adult requires around 6 - 8 hours of sleep each day. Whereas for children the sleep time will be much longer. This is rather different when we look into certain animals depending on the species.
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Believe it or not, there are some animals out there with only minutes of sleep each day. Here we would like to share with you the top 7 animals that sleep the least in a typical day.

1. Dolphin

According to the National Sleep Foundation, dolphins and several other sea mammals have a unique sleep mechanism known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep. Dolphins and related animals have such features whereby the brain is split into two parts.

When one part of the animal sleep, the one will stay awake resulting in the animals requiring less sleep through the day. When a dolphin fully emerges in their sleep, it will remain on the surface of the water with the blowhole being above the surface and its tail moving involuntarily to ensure that its body stays afloat.

2. Giraffe

On average, an adult giraffe requires 20 - 30 minutes of sleep a day. Interestingly enough, this creature can sleep for merely 5 minutes in one sleeping session and will go into sleep mode several times a day.

Unlike humans and other land animals that lay on the ground as they sleep, a giraffe will sleep in an upward position. With such a huge leg and neck, it is rather risky for it to sleep laid down as this will make it difficult for them to stand back up if attacked by predators.

For most younger giraffes, they will sleep while sitting down.

3. Horse

A horse typically sleeps around 2 hours a day. Similar to a giraffe, a horse will sleep numerous times throughout the day, and each session usually last 15 minutes. A horse is capable of sleeping while standing or sitting and generally, the young ones sleep for a longer period of time.
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To ensure their safety from unwanted predators, a horse usually sleep in groups. Because of this, horses in the wild will usually not sleep much for the sake of their safety.

4. Elephant

The giant size and heavy weight truly limit the sleeping time of elephants. This creature only needs 3 - 4 hours of sleep per day while most of its time is spent searching for food.

An elephant will use up the remaining 18 hours of its day for food as it will need around 90 - 270 kg of food to consume. An elephant can also sleep in an upright position or leaning to a tree.

5. Ostrich

The biggest bird in the world sleeps in a strange way unlike other animals as they keep their eyes open while standing up.

This allows their body and brain to rest but at the same time be vigilant to potential predators lurking around for the right opportunity. However, while they are in a deep sleep, their neck will slightly tilt to the ground.

6. Deer

A deer is another animal that sleeps with its eyes open aside from ostriches. In fact, this animal sleeps in a relatively short time regardless of whether it is night or day.
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Night time is a critical moment for this animal considering that it is at higher risk of being attacked by nocturnal predators. This situation forces them to be in wake mode most of the time.

7. Alpine Swift Bird

An Alpine Swift is a type of bird that lives in southern Europe all the way to the Himalayas. This animal spends most of its time flying and migrating to the southern region of Africa. One study showed that this animal is capable of flying for 200 days(6 months) in this migration period.

Scientists are still studying how this animal can refrain from being asleep for such a long time. Some theories claimed that this bird has 2 brain parts such as dolphins to allow them to stay awake most of the time.

Source:
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