African Elephant
Winning at Waketime!
Elephants barely sleep!
~2 hours of sleep a day
You might think the biggest land animals need a BIG night's sleep. Nope!
Wild African elephants can sleep for only about two hours a day. Instead of snoozing the night away, they spend much of their time awake, walking, eating and exploring.
Now You Know!
Researchers once recorded wild elephants going nearly 46 hours without sleep!
That's almost two whole days awake.
How does an african elephant sleep?
- How long?
About 2 hours a day
Based on one study of wild African elephants.
- When?
Mostly at night
- How?
Standing up or lying down
From Sleep, Nap, Snooze
Winning at Waketime
The African elephant is one of the sleepy, strange and surprising animals featured in Sleep, Nap, Snooze: The Bed Habits of Animals.
Explore the BookKeep snoozing...
Discover All Animal Sleep FactsFor parents & teachers
Is this really true? Sources & further reading
Yes, with an important detail. In a 2017 study, researchers tracked two wild African elephant matriarchs for 35 days. They averaged about two hours of sleep per day, and the researchers recorded periods of up to about 46 hours without sleep.
Because the study followed two elephants, we shouldn't say that every African elephant sleeps exactly two hours or regularly stays awake for 46 hours.
- Animal:
- African Elephant
- Scientific name:
- Loxodonta africana