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You are here: Home / Blog / How Do Whales Sleep?

How Do Whales Sleep?

In the vast ocean, there are creatures that tower over all others in size.

One of these is the whale, a mammal that can weigh up to 400,000 pounds and grow up to 100 feet long. With all that weight and size, you might be wondering how whales sleep without sinking to the bottom of the ocean and drowning.

So how exactly do Whales Sleep?

The answer is that they are conscious breathers, so their bodies breathe in different ways than those of land animals (like us). We are unconscious breathers, so our bodies instinctively breathe when we sleep.

Cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and whales) are conscious breathers, which implies that they must decide when to breathe.

Whales and dolphins are well-adapted to spending their entire lives in the sea.

Whales and dolphins sleep, although the manner and requirements for the sort of sleep they require differ. The length of sleep varies considerably across species.

There are a number of popular sleeping techniques and postures. These include resting quietly in the water horizontally or vertically, as well as sleeping while slowly swimming next to another podmate or in small groups.

In captivity, dolphins have been observed resting for short periods of time at the bottom of their tanks.

Humpback whales are known for resting motionless on the surface of the water while sleeping. They can’t sleep for more than 30 minutes without risking the cold water impacting their body temperature if they don’t move about.

It’s widely accepted that whales sleep with one eye closed and half of their brain “shut off.” The idea is that they do this to keep an eye on possible predators or dangers.

The condition, which is known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, has also been observed in whales kept in captivity.

It is thought that this also helps them to remember to breathe at the appropriate moment. Many different species of dolphins have been observed sleeping for two to four hours at a time.

Although it’s not well established, various studies have shown that traditional sleep duration for bottlenose dolphin species is around 33% of the day.

The larger sperm whale has been observed to sleep for just 7% of the day.

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