Feeling tired?
Well, we all are thanks to Sunday being the Sleepiest Day of the Year. As daylight savings starts, we lose an hour, meaning we’re all a fair bit sleepier than normal.
If you’re feeling angry, tired or maybe just annoyed, now you know why. To combat those feelings, we’ve found the 5 sleepiest animals in the world, to make you feel a bit better about yourself.
Sure, as humans we need a solid 7-9 hours of sleep, but some of these animals need up to 18 hours sleep a day – not so lazy now, are we?
1. Opossum: 18 hours
The North American Opossum also has an average sleep time of 18 hours, due to their solitary and nomadic lifestyle. Fun fact – when an opossum is threatened or harm, they’ll play dead by mimicking the appearance of a sick or dead anima. They’ll do this by lying down, baring their teeth, foaming at the mouth and leaving their eyes half closed. They can actually be prodded and carried without gaining consciousness, but will wake up within 1-4 hours after originally feigning dead.
2. Sloth: 10 hours
Whilst wild sloths sleep around 10 hours a day, sloths in captivity can sleep for up to 20 hours a day. Not bothered by the hectic world, sloths are universally known for being lazy, slow animals. Sloths will spend most of their lives in hanging positions on tree branches, and will rarely come onto the ground. In fact, sloths can so just about everything from a tree branch – eating, sleeping, mating and even giving birth!
3. Armadillo: 19 hours
There are over 15 different species of these placental mammals, and each one is named according to their physical characteristics. The armadillo can sleep for up to 19 hours a day, and are active during the night. They’re extremely anti-social, and spend most of their time sleeping and digging underground. The only time they’ll meet up with other armadillos is to mate or to huddle together to keep warm, due to their extremely low natural body temperatures.
4. Koala: 19-20 hours
How could we not include the most prolific sleeper of all, the koala! They live in Eucalyptus trees, and when they’re awake (which is rarely) they spend that time eating Eucalyptus leaves. It is the almost-zero nutritional value of the leaves that makes koalas so sleepy, leaving them with no energy. Did you know that during the short time they are awake, koalas can consume 1 kilogram of leaves a day? They even store snacks of leaves in pouches in their cheeks, in case they’re keen for a midday snack!
5.Owl Monkey: 17 hours
A truly nocturnal mammal, the owl monkey has an appearance like an owl, with a rounded head and extremely large brown eyes. They have a particularly unusual way of attracting a mate – where most animals would issue a call for mating, owl monkeys cannot because it will attract attention to where they are hiding. Instead, they urinate on their hands and rub them together and then rub them on trees, which is known as “urine washing”.
6. Cats: 15 hours
If you own a cat, you’ll know how sleepy they are. Curling up on the lounge and snoozing for most of the day isn’t unusual for these felines, with most people just deeming the household cat as lazy. This isn’t true, as cats are natural predators, who conserve their energy for hunting, or in the case of the domesticated cat, chasing birds or playing with loose threads from your lounge.
Sweet dreams, koalas.
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