The 5 Animals That Sleep The Most In The World

Photos of sleeping animals are a real  viral phenomenon on social networks . This is due to the feeling of sweetness and calm that they transmit. Did you know that there are living things that can sleep up to 22 hours a day? If you love nature-related curiosities, don’t miss the 5 animals that sleep the most in the world.

Which animals sleep the most?

Koala

The gold medal goes to the koala, this cute and sweet marsupial native to Australia. He is able to sleep 22 hours a day. It spends most of its time among the eucalyptus branches and only moves when the temperature drops or rises.

For example, if it’s summer, koalas will look for taller trees with enough leaves to protect themselves from the sun and avoid hot air. Regardless of the greater or lesser availability of food.

When winter comes, they need more leafy trees to protect them from the cold and rain. They stay lower, because at higher altitudes, temperatures would be lower.

As a curiosity, it is worth remembering that the koala does not sleep only out of necessity, but simply because it likes it, and in fact it appears in a bad mood when it wakes up. Is he or not, the true champion of the animals that sleep the most?

Sloth

Have you ever heard the expression “slow as a sloth”? This mammal is able to sleep 20 hours a day ! Unlike the koala, the sloth always lives in the same tree, except when it comes down to carry out its needs, which it carefully covers. Once done, look for another tree, at least once a month.

His sleep hours are totally justifiable, since he has to save energy.

Armadillo

This animal, native to Central and South America, is among the most curious and fascinating in the world. As you may know, he possesses armor that covers his entire body, including legs, tail and ears. The bronze medal goes to this extraordinary mammal, a distant relative of the  glyptodon, due to the 19 hours it sleeps.

These hours of sleep also seem justified by the weight he has to endure during the day. It is estimated that its shell can weigh up to 3 times more than its body. In short, getting around doesn’t have to be a simple thing at all. It is as if an adult human being weighing 70 kg had to walk, for five hours a day, with a load of 210 kg …

Opossum

This marsupial deserves third place on a par with the armadillo. The possum also needs to sleep for at least  19 hours a day. Despite its small size, which allows it to be very agile in climbing trees, on the ground it is clumsy and slow. Thus, most of his time, both asleep and awake, he spends in the other branches.

Maybe that’s why you need to sleep so much, because climbing and jumping from tree to tree must be tiring, don’t you think?

Lemur

The fourth position belongs to this formidable and likeable primate, made famous by the Madagascar cartoon  . Lemurs sleep 16 hours a day, an indispensable time to accumulate useful energy to be able to spend the rest of the day. Also on the African island, there is even a species of nocturnal lemur that prefers to sleep during the day in order to feed in the hours of darkness. A strategy that allows him to escape from various predators. 

It is known as the smallest of the primates and, as mentioned earlier, it is native to Madagascar. Perhaps it is the tropical heat of this island that pushes them to sleep so much, even if being arboreal mammals , they have to constantly jump from tree to tree, which greatly affects their energy expenditure.

These are the five sleeping animals in the world. We hope this article has aroused your curiosity and not your sleep … Anyway, while we’re at it: good rest to everyone!