Snails. They can sleep for three years. Snails are among the few animals that can go into hibernation. They slip into a bit of a torpor. You see, on most days, their survival hugely relies on moisture. So when there aren’t any liquids to be had, a snail can sleep for as long as it takes — even three years — until the environment is suitable.
I’m not sure if this is the sleepiest animal on the planet or not.
I know that on a day-to-day basis, our friends down under hold the trophy. Koalas sleep around 22 hours per day. That is 90% of their time. The other 10%, they spend just sitting around and eating. I bet they have incredible dreams.
Some other big sleepers in our world? Sloths. No surprise there. They sleep around 20 hours per day, as do brown bats, who only come out at night anyway.
More big sleepers are giant armadillos. Opossums. Tigers. They all sleep around 19 hours.
But the ones that really surprised me were chipmunks. They seem so busy when I see them, what with scampering around here and there, stuffing their little cheeks as they do. But amidst all of that, those chippies sleep 17 hours per day.
We humans have a bit of a fixation with sleep, I think. It accounts for a third of our lives, for one thing. And some people, including myself, love to dream. But if we can’t sleep, we really freak out about it. We’ve created sleep doctors, and sleep clinics, and sleep medicine.
Some of us even have sleep rituals, like showering before bedtime, or eating, or drinking, or watching TV. Some folks do yoga before nodding off. Others read a book.
We humans are so enamored with sleeping, we even write stories about it.
Sleeping Beauty, of course. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Rip Van Winkle. The Princess and the Pea. Goldilocks and the Three Bears. All of these are concerned with sleep.
Those are all fairy tales, of course. But sleep goes into modern movies, like, While You Were Sleeping; Pillowtalk; Sleepless In Seattle; Insomnia; and so many more.
As adults, we are supposed to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. Two hours of that is spent dreaming, I should add. But about 35% of the people in America do not get 7 hours on their trips to Slumberland. It is no wonder the world is so cranky all the time. People should sleep more, I think.
We do it to ourselves. Humans can keep themselves awake when our bodies tell us it’s time to sleep. Interestingly, all other mammals have to go to sleep when their bodies feel the need. Oh, we dumb humans. Everyone else on the planet listens to their bodies. But not us.
Our need for sleep has shifted in modern times. These days, most people only see sleep as a chance to charge their cell phones.
And so we go. Hey. Did I tell you? Snails can sleep for three years.
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The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.
— Robert Frost
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Sleep is the best meditation.
— Dalai Lama
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There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.
— Homer
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Nighty, night, night. You slug.
