Reindeer snooze while chewing, penguins take thousands of naps per day, frigate birds sleep while flying Nesting chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus) get a few seconds of shut-eye at a time while watching over their chicks. Many of us don’t get as much sleep as we should. We might stay up late talking to friends or scrolling through our phones. We pull all-nighters to finish important projects. And sometimes we have to wake up too early for school or work. But in a perfect world, humans would lay down for an average eight hours of shut-eye per night. Northern elephant seals, for instance, sleep an average two hours per day for less than 20 minutes at a time while at sea. They dive deep below predators to avoid getting eaten in their sleep. Nesting chinstrap penguins take sleeping to another extreme. They nap thousands of times each day for mere seconds at a time. This allows them to stay alert around the clock to protect their chicks from predatory birds or other penguins. Other animals have evolved to multitask in their sleep. Ocean-crossing frigate birds can sleep while they fly above the waves for months at a time. Reindeer, meanwhile, can sleep while eating so they get enough food during the Arctic’s brief summer months.
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Thursday, June 26, 2025