Almost all animals need sleep.
But some creatures realize that their need is quite unusual and interesting ways.
From those who sleep 20 hours a day and ending with those who sleep only half the brain, below we have gathered the most unusual ways sleep among the animal Kingdom.
Elephants
According to a new study, elephants in the wild only sleep two hours a day. And it’s not continuous sleep, it happens in spurts for several hours. Although in their case they could afford and more without worrying about attacks of predators.
To obtain this information, scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand (University of Witwatersrand) in Johannesburg, South Africa, attached the motion sensors and small monitors to the two female elephant and recorded their activity during the month.
Mostly the animals slept standing, but sometimes went. They did not choose a place to sleep, and their activity level during the day did not seem to affect how long they dozed. To such conclusion experts whose research was published in the journal Plos One.
The title of the study asks the question, does the obtained information that elephants have the shortest sleep cycle of any mammal. However, here there is a healthy competition from wild giraffes.
Giraffes
In the wild these bulky giants can live for weeks without sleep, though, and use it as needed. Being big and slow, they are constantly on guard, as they fear predators.
When they lay sleeping, they have all the time standing on lanky legs, which, after a certain time, nothing can help them in the face of attack. I wonder what they can sleep for five minutes at a time, for a total of “gaining” a day about half an hour.
According to the study authors, who worked with the elephants, in captivity giraffes sleep 4-5 hours a day.
Sperm whales
In 2008, a group of experts studied the behavior of and sounds made by sperm whales off the coast of Chile. Then they made a surprising discovery: several sperm whales slept so soundly sleep in the water that none of them had seen or heard the approaching boat.
Although these are the largest of the toothed whales sleep with one hemisphere while the other half of the brain is awake, they sleep very soundly.
Whales in a vertical position dangling in the water, some plunged in water, others just stuck their noses. This happened as long as a small boat accidentally stumbled upon one of the noses. It woke the animals, and all sailed.
From this the researchers suggested that the sperm whales really fully go to sleep at a time for 10-15 minutes. During sleep they do not breathe.
Ducklings
Researchers from the University of Indiana was shooting ducks for another experiment, when they noticed some interesting things about the “canard” dream.
First, the ducks almost always sleep in rows. Second, ducklings, trailing number on both sides, keep “closing” the eye open at a time, like ducks, is located inside the a number of, allow yourself to sleep with both eyes closed.
Dolphins
Dolphins are similar to whales, they sleep only half the brain. In their case, it is necessary not just to be on the alert to hear the approach of a predator, but also know when to rise to the surface to gulp air, not to suffocate in their sleep.
According to Scientific American, dolphins sleep in one of two ways: either rest in the deepest form of sleep (in this case, they look like logs floating in the water), or just slowly float next to each other.
When they sleep and swim at the same time, it’s light sleep like people sleep.
Newborn dolphins don’t sleep the first few months of life. The mother must sleep on the go, she cannot stop swimming for the first few weeks of baby’s life.
If it stops for a long time, the baby will start to sink, because he was born with an insufficient amount of fat, which would allow it to easily swim.
Walrus
You can envy the walrus for his sleeping habits: this is not quite good smelling guy can sleep in any time and in any place, whether it floats in water, lying on the ground, or just leaning on another walrus.
The researchers noted that they even saw walruses that were sleeping, caught tusks in the ice floe.
Siegel, Jerome (Jerome Siegel), Director of the center for sleep research at the University of California Los Angeles, told Discovery News that these mammals can hold their breath and sleep underwater for 4-5 minutes as well as sleep one hemisphere of the brain.
On land they are immersed in deep sleep, which can last up to 19 hours. It seems that the sleep they really need: walruses can have periods of activity when they sleep and float up to 84 hours.
“The discovery that walruses can be active up to 84 hours without showing any signs of fatigue, unprecedented,” he told Discovery News specialist sleep Rattenborg Niels (Niels Rattenborg).
Bats
You probably know that bats sleep upside down. They do this because their wings are not strong enough to fly up from the ground, so they use gravity by engaging in flight at once from a height after sleep.
Although this is a quite strange habit itself, it is only part of the story of their sleep. Did you know that bats are one of the most sleepy creatures on the planet?
For example, the little brown bat sleeps for 19.9 hours on average every day. Giant armadillos and opossums are in the second place, sleeping about 18 hours a day.
Zebras and horses
Zebras and horses often sleep standing up, so they are virtually always on the alert. To sleep in this position, they use a special mechanism of his body, which allows them to “lock” the knee in a straight position.
Thus to maintain themselves in a standing position, they require a minimal amount of muscle.
When they sleep in this position, it is rather superficial sleep, so from time to time, they need to go to relaxation.
Sea otter
Sleepy habit of this animal is, perhaps, the sweetest in this list. When these furry little creatures are asleep, they swim back on the surface of the water, and does not carry far. It is known that they sleep in pairs or small groups and hold hands.
They can also wrap up in kelp or algae growing from the seabed, thus creating itself a kind of anchor.
Migratory birds
Many birds such as Alpine swift and Albatross spend most of their lives migrating or hunting. Therefore, these birds are a kind of mnogozadachnosti that and sleep, and eat during the flight.
Researchers have found that Alpine Swifts can stay in flight for about 200 days without interruption to the landing. Then they asked the question: when do birds sleep? Scientists believe that birds sleep with one brain hemisphere as whales, ducks and walruses, along with the dream hovering in the air.
Meerkats
Along with meerkats otters share the palm on the sweet sleep habits. These feline creatures live in underground burrows 50 animals.
Their burrows to a depth of 2-2. 5 meters. Each hole is divided into numerous sleeping rooms, while there are those that are used only during mating.
When they go to bed, they do it in cozy piles to be warmer. In the summer they often leave their homes and sleep on the earth’s surface.
Sharks
A lot of information about sharks, including how they close their eyes, unknown to us. However, we know that the sharks need to breathe, they have to pass water through their gills, so most sharks sleep while driving.
But some small shark species, such as, for example, the whiskered nurse sharks can use their spiracles (small holes under each eye, which act as gills) to pump water through their gills while they are on the bottom of the ocean.
Recently for the first time, researchers were able to film the great white shark is sleeping. Footage of a robotic underwater vehicle near the Mexican Peninsula in California, showed that the female shark night swims closer to shore in shallow water.
She swims against the tide with his mouth open, so the water continues to pass through the gills. Movement speed is thus greatly reduced, so the researchers believe that in these moments the shark is sleeping.
Snails
Heard the story about the snail who slept for four years? In Natural History magazine published a story about how in the late 19th century employee of the British Museum’s got the conch of Egyptian terrestrial snails and, assuming it is empty, put it on the ID card.
Four years later, he noticed traces of mucus on the card. The man put the shell in the water, and when the sink is disconnected from the card, supposedly the snail crawled.
Ordinary garden snail hibernates from late autumn to spring under stones, fallen leaves, in cracks in the ground or in stones. Their shells firmly against the surface, protecting the very snail from the wind and retaining heat.
Other snails spend the summer in hibernation. This means that in hot and dry periods they are in for a protracted rest, as was the case with the aforementioned sleepy snail.
Frogs
Like snails, frogs have a long sleep – sleepy is the main strategy. Frogs that hibernate in the summer, they are found mostly in Africa and South America. In dry times they burrow into the soil and through multiple layers of skin form a kind of cocoon, leaving open only the nose for breathing.
When the rains come again they get rid of the cocoon and come to the surface. Some aquatic frogs overwinter under water on a muddy bottom, and partially buried in the dirt. They don’t do it completely, like turtles, because I need oxygen and if completely bury, you can suffocate.
Terrestrial frogs such as the wood frog and American toad, hibernate, burrowing into the frozen ground or hiding in crevices of a log or rock.
Most interestingly, the frogs who hibernate in the winter, have a “built-in antifreeze system”. As the formation of ice crystals in their bodies (in the urinary bladder or under the skin), a high concentration of glucose makes a their major organs from freezing.
The heart may stop beating, and the frog could stop breathing, but come spring, the frog thaws and returns to life.
Bears
We have already talked about moving in my sleep about food in my sleep. And how about giving birth in a dream? Pregnant bears going into hibernation very quickly give birth to several cubs, and then going back to sleep.
Impressive that the sleeping Mama bear that does not eat, does not drink, does not go to the toilet, remains able to support the growing life inside.
Monkey
Orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees are very like to sleep curled up, as humans do. Orangutans sleep very soundly, settling comfortably on the back or while turning from side to side in her sleep.
Meanwhile, the dream of a chimpanzee is very sensitive. Animals are extremely picky to the place of sleep. Every night they “re-make” his bed from leaves and stems. In fact, many populations of monkeys, so many sleepy habits.
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