Ranking

Which animals sleep the least?

Giraffes sleep 1.9 hours a day, the least of any mammal in the dataset.

Which animals sleep the least: top 20Total sleep (h/day)

Show the data as a table

The full table is below the chart.

Which animals sleep the least? – 83 rows. Click a column header to sort.
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1	Giraffe	1.9 h/day	0.4	900	Artiodactyla	herbi
2	Pilot whale	2.7 h/day	0.1	800	Cetacea	carni
3	Horse	2.9 h/day	0.6	521	Perissodactyla	herbi
4	Roe deer	3.0 h/day	–	14.8	Artiodactyla	herbi
5	Donkey	3.1 h/day	0.4	187	Perissodactyla	herbi
6	African elephant	3.3 h/day	–	6,654	Proboscidea	herbi
7	Caspian seal	3.5 h/day	0.4	86	Carnivora	carni
8	Sheep	3.8 h/day	0.6	55.5	Artiodactyla	herbi
9	Asian elephant	3.9 h/day	–	2,547	Proboscidea	herbi
10	Cow	4.0 h/day	0.7	600	Artiodactyla	herbi
11	Brazilian tapir	4.4 h/day	1	207.5	Perissodactyla	herbi
12	Bottle-nosed dolphin	5.2 h/day	–	173.33	Cetacea	carni
13	Goat	5.3 h/day	0.6	33.5	Artiodactyla	herbi
14	Tree hyrax	5.3 h/day	0.5	2.95	Hyracoidea	herbi
15	Rock hyrax	5.4 h/day	0.5	3.6	Hyracoidea	–
16	Common porpoise	5.6 h/day	–	53.18	Cetacea	carni
17	Gray seal	6.2 h/day	1.5	85	Carnivora	carni
18	Gray hyrax	6.3 h/day	0.6	2.63	Hyracoidea	herbi
19	Genet	6.3 h/day	1.3	2	Carnivora	carni
20	Vesper mouse	7.0 h/day	–	0.05	Rodentia	–
21	Degu	7.7 h/day	0.9	0.21	Rodentia	herbi
22	Human	8.0 h/day	1.9	62	Primates	omni
23	African giant pouched rat	8.3 h/day	2	1	Rodentia	omni
24	Rabbit	8.4 h/day	0.9	2.5	Lagomorpha	herbi
25	Eastern american mole	8.4 h/day	2.1	0.08	Soricomorpha	insecti
26	Short-nosed echidna	8.6 h/day	–	4.5	Monotremata	insecti
27	Northern fur seal	8.7 h/day	1.4	20.49	Carnivora	carni
28	African striped mouse	8.7 h/day	–	0.04	Rodentia	omni
29	Tree shrew	8.9 h/day	2.6	0.1	Scandentia	omni
30	Lesser short-tailed shrew	9.1 h/day	1.4	0.01	Soricomorpha	omni
31	Pig	9.1 h/day	2.4	86.25	Artiodactyla	omni
32	Guinea pig	9.4 h/day	0.8	0.73	Rodentia	herbi
33	Baboon	9.4 h/day	1	25.24	Primates	omni
34	Mongoose lemur	9.5 h/day	0.9	1.67	Primates	herbi
35	Squirrel monkey	9.6 h/day	1.4	0.74	Primates	omni
36	Chimpanzee	9.7 h/day	1.4	52.2	Primates	omni
37	Galago	9.8 h/day	1.1	0.2	Primates	omni
38	Red fox	9.8 h/day	2.4	4.23	Carnivora	carni
39	Grivet	10.0 h/day	0.7	4.75	Primates	omni
40	Dog	10.1 h/day	2.9	14	Carnivora	carni
41	European hedgehog	10.1 h/day	3.5	0.77	Erinaceomorpha	omni
42	Macaque	10.1 h/day	1.2	6.8	Primates	omni
43	Star-nosed mole	10.3 h/day	2.2	0.06	Soricomorpha	omni
44	Desert hedgehog	10.3 h/day	2.7	0.55	Erinaceomorpha	–
45	Jaguar	10.4 h/day	–	100	Carnivora	carni
46	Mole rat	10.6 h/day	2.4	0.12	Rodentia	–
47	Patas monkey	10.9 h/day	1.1	10	Primates	omni
48	Slow loris	11.0 h/day	–	1.4	Primates	carni
49	Potto	11.0 h/day	–	1.1	Primates	omni
50	Potoroo	11.1 h/day	1.5	1.1	Diprotodontia	herbi
51	Cotton rat	11.3 h/day	1.1	0.15	Rodentia	herbi
52	Deer mouse	11.5 h/day	–	0.02	Rodentia	–
53	Cheetah	12.1 h/day	–	50	Carnivora	carni
54	Chinchilla	12.5 h/day	1.5	0.42	Rodentia	herbi
55	Domestic cat	12.5 h/day	3.2	3.3	Carnivora	carni
56	House mouse	12.5 h/day	1.4	0.02	Rodentia	herbi
57	Arctic fox	12.5 h/day	–	3.38	Carnivora	carni
58	Vole	12.8 h/day	–	0.04	Rodentia	herbi
59	Musk shrew	12.8 h/day	2	0.05	Soricomorpha	–
60	Laboratory rat	13.0 h/day	2.4	0.32	Rodentia	herbi
61	Lion	13.5 h/day	–	161.5	Carnivora	carni
62	Phalanger	13.7 h/day	1.8	1.62	Diprotodontia	–
63	Thirteen-lined ground squirrel	13.8 h/day	3.4	0.1	Rodentia	herbi
64	Mongolian gerbil	14.2 h/day	1.9	0.05	Rodentia	herbi
65	Golden hamster	14.3 h/day	3.1	0.12	Rodentia	herbi
66	Mountain beaver	14.4 h/day	2.4	1.35	Rodentia	herbi
67	Three-toed sloth	14.4 h/day	2.2	3.85	Pilosa	herbi
68	Northern grasshopper mouse	14.5 h/day	–	0.03	Rodentia	carni
69	Round-tailed muskrat	14.6 h/day	–	0.27	Rodentia	herbi
70	Greater short-tailed shrew	14.9 h/day	2.3	0.02	Soricomorpha	omni
71	Western american chipmunk	14.9 h/day	–	0.07	Rodentia	herbi
72	Tenrec	15.6 h/day	2.3	0.9	Afrosoricida	omni
73	Tiger	15.8 h/day	–	162.56	Carnivora	carni
74	Eastern american chipmunk	15.8 h/day	–	0.11	Rodentia	herbi
75	Golden-mantled ground squirrel	15.9 h/day	3	0.21	Rodentia	herbi
76	Arctic ground squirrel	16.6 h/day	–	0.92	Rodentia	herbi
77	Owl monkey	17.0 h/day	1.8	0.48	Primates	omni
78	Long-nosed armadillo	17.4 h/day	3.1	3.5	Cingulata	carni
79	North American Opossum	18.0 h/day	4.9	1.7	Didelphimorphia	omni
80	Giant armadillo	18.1 h/day	6.1	60	Cingulata	insecti
81	Thick-tailed opposum	19.4 h/day	6.6	0.37	Didelphimorphia	carni
82	Big brown bat	19.7 h/day	3.9	0.02	Chiroptera	insecti
83	Little brown bat	19.9 h/day	2	0.01	Chiroptera	insecti

What this shows

The bottom of the table belongs to big grazers: giraffe (1.9 h), horse (2.9 h), roe deer (3.0 h), donkey (3.1 h) and African elephant (3.3 h). A common explanation is that grazing on low-energy food leaves little time for anything else, but the main pattern in the data is simply size.

One entry needs care: the pilot whale's 2.7 hours (and the dolphin's and porpoise's figures) were halved by Savage & West because these animals sleep with one brain hemisphere at a time. They are not comparable behavioural sleep times, and each row says so. Wild African elephants, measured with trunk sensors, slept even less than the captive figure here: about 2 hours a day.

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What this shows

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