On average, a human needs from 6 to 8 hours of sleep every day, but did you know, the animals sleep a lot more. For example, the animal that sleep the most is the koala.
In animals, sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, and inhibition of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and it is more easily reversible than being in hibernation or a coma.
During sleep, most systems in an animal are in a heightened anabolic state, accentuating the growth and rejuvenation of, e.g., the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems. It is observed in mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, and in some form also in insects and even simpler animals such as nematodes, suggesting that sleep is universal in the animal kingdom
Koalas can sleep all day
If there was a contest for the most sleeping animal in the world, koalas would win because they sleep from 20 to 22 hours per day. Koala is native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae, and its closest living relatives are the wombats. The koala is found in coastal areas of the mainland’s eastern and southern regions and it is easily recognizable by its stout, tailless body, round, fluffy ears, and large, spoon-shaped nose.
Lazy and cute sloths
These cute creatures can sleep even 20 hours per day. Sloths are medium-sized mammals. They are part of the order Pilosa and are therefore related to anteaters, which sport a similar set of specialized claws. Extant sloths are arboreal (tree-dwelling) residents of the jungles of Central and South America, and are known for being slow-moving, and hence named “sloths”.
Lemur can sleep 16 hours a day
These interesting animals, known as the ghost of the forest can sleep for 16 hours each day. Lemurs are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. They are small primates known as “prosimians,” which, roughly translated, means “pre-primates” or “before monkeys.”
Mighty Lion wants to sleep
The king of the jungle is wild and dangerous only when he is not sleeping, but he can sleep a lot, from 14 to 16 hours a day. Lions are the second largest cats after the tiger. Most are tawny in color; faint spots found on the young are occasionally kept into maturity.
Little Squirrel can sleep a lot
These cute, nuts eating animals can are sleeping every day for around 14 hours. Squirrels are familiar to almost everyone. More than 200 squirrel species live all over the world, with the notable exception of Australia. They are very trusting animals, and are of the very few wild animal species which will eat out of a person’s hand.
Cat can sleep through half of the day
We all know that cats love to eat, cuddle and sleep. One cat sleeps from 10 to 12 hours a day, sometimes even more. On average, cats spend 2/3 of every day sleeping. That means a nine-year-old cat has been awake for only three years of its life.
The Sleepiest Animals on Earth
