Animals Hit the Snooze Button Trivia Quiz

Answer: Great apes

Great apes such as gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans have a monophasic sleep cycle. Like humans, they sleep for one long stretch each day. This likely has something to do with the forest platforms that they build for sleeping. They are able to climb in and go to "bed" without disruptions from predators or others in their groups. Gorillas sleep for about twelve hours at a stretch, chimpanzees sleep for about nine hours at a stretch, and orangutans sleep for about eight hours at a stretch.

Answer: Dolphin

The dolphin and other cetaceans use a unihemispheric slow wave approach to sleeping. This means that they are able to shut down one half of their brain for sleep while almost literally sleeping with one eye open by keeping the other half of their brains awake. Other animals that use this approach to sleeping include manatees, eared seals and some birds.

Answer: Air pockets in their throat

Walruses like to sleep on land or on ice, but both males and females have pharyngeal pouches in their necks. For the males, these help them to make their characteristic bellowing mating calls. Although they sometimes jab their tusks into ice to keep from floating away, they also use the pouches to float. With their ability to hold 13 gallons (50 liters) of air, these pharyngeal pouches also help walruses stay afloat for naps in the water.

Answer: Special tendons in their legs and feet

Unlike many other mammals, bats do not clench their claws with muscles. The tendons in their legs and claws are connected to their upper bodies only, not to muscles. In order to sleep upside down, bats fly to their perching area. Then they open their claws using muscles.

When they have found a suitable perch, they simply relax the muscles that are holding their claws open. Their weight pulls down on the tendons that are connected to their claws, which causes them to clench and lock. The weight of their bodies then keeps their claws clenched the entire time that they sleep.

Answer: During updrafts of wind currents

When frigate birds take flight, they can stay over the ocean in the sky for months. They can sleep with half a brain, and can also sleep with their entire brains. When they fly, they only sleep while they are gliding, and do so only in rising air currents.

While flying, frigate birds only sleep in very short ten-second bursts at a time in the upward air currents. This helps them to keep from falling into the sea. Once they land, frigate birds sleep in about one-minute bursts, but they get about twelve hours of sleep a day, as opposed to only catching their forty winks in really short bursts while they are gliding on air currents over the ocean.

Answer: True

When swimming, fur seals use unihemispheric sleep. Here, they shut down half of their brain for sleep while keeping the other half alert for use while they swim. Once back on land, they switch to bihemispheric sleep. Here, they shut down both halves of their brains to sleep.

They keep the entire thing turned down, just like humans while they are on land. Scientists have also found that fur seals sleep far less while swimming than when they are on land.

Answer: Vertical, heads pointed up

Some whales have been photographed apparently napping in the ocean. Pods of sperm whales seem to gather and orient themselves vertically as though they are "standing" in the water, tails down and heads up, then remain motionless for some time. Lone humpback whales have also been spotted apparently taking brief naps in the same position.

Answer: It throws off your natural rhythms

When you sleep at night, your brain goes through a number of cycles from lighter sleep to deeper sleep when you get the most rest. Cycling through these is the best way to stay mentally and physically healthy. When people hit the snooze button too often each week, it interferes with their natural sleep cycles, called circadian rhythms.

The interference occurs when the brain is just drifting into deeper sleep after the snooze button hit before it is abruptly awakened about nine minutes later. This results in a feeling of grogginess when the feet finally hit the floor that could last much of the morning.

This, in turn, interferes with the body's ability to stay healthy. The best bet is to get up as soon as the alarm goes off, no matter how tempting it might be to snooze a little longer.

Answer: Using natural updraft currents

Scientists have observed grey reef sharks positioning themselves in areas where there is a relatively strong updraft current. Then, they seem to put their bodies into rest mode while they appear to "surf" the updraft. Using a variety of tools such as photography and biomedical markers, the scientists concluded that this strategy helps the sharks to save about 15% of the energy that they normally use swimming across the same distance, thus allowing them a chance to rest while still getting their oxygen.

Answer: False

Scientists have observed that upside down jellyfish seem to go into a state of rest every night. Their bells do not pulse as often, and they are not as responsive to things like food and other stimuli at night. So, it appears that even the most basic of animals still needs to take some time for forty winks each day.