These animals sleep really weird!

Some animals have some very strange sleeping habits, so we’ve put together a list of 5 of the strangest sleepers.

Horses

Horses have a really freaky way of sleeping… they do it standing up!

They do this because when horses are in the wild they could be attacked by predators. If they’re asleep standing up then they can quickly run away if they get woken up by something looking for a horse shaped snack!

Although it is a weird way to sleep horses don’t actually sleep standing up all the time. They only do it when they are at risk of being attacked as they can only have very light sleep while standing up.

Giraffes

Giraffes are another animal that can sleep standing up to help them quickly get away from predators.

The other weird thing about Giraffes is that they will only sleep for around 30 minutes each day! And they tend to only sleep for 5 minutes at a time.

They do this so that they are not exposed for too long to predators that might attack them. The less time they’re asleep, the less time they can get attacked.

Dolphins

Although dolphins live under the water they still need to breathe air just like humans do.

This could be a problem when they go to sleep but their brains have evolved in a very clever way to fix this.

When they sleep they only shut down half their brain, the other half stays awake so they can keep getting air to breathe. They also keep one eye open so they can keep a look out for predators while they have a snooze.

Sea Otters

Otters love the water so much they use it as their bed!

They sleep lying back in the water. This is great for them as it stops any land based animals that might want to eat them from getting to them.

They will often also hold hands and wrap themselves in seaweed to stop them floating away from each other.

Sometimes you can get up to 100 otters all sleeping together in what we call an Otter raft!

Meerkats

Meerkats sleep in a massive pile. They all just pile on and go to sleep!

The alpha male and females are like the leaders of the group and they sleep right in the middle of the pile so they can be the most protected from any danger that might come along in the night.