Ten Animals That Sleep in Truly Strange Positions

Human beds look almost embarrassingly simple next to the sleeping arrangements in the animal kingdom.

From locked legs to half-working brains, ten creatures have evolved positions that would give any mattress company an existential crisis.

Horses doze standing upright, locking a tendon-and-ligament system called the stay apparatus so they [cannot] topple while half-asleep.

Even so, they must lie down for deep REM sleep, which is why a stretched-out horse is a compliment to its surroundings.

Dolphins, who would drown if they slept entirely, let one brain hemisphere rest at a time while the other keeps them swimming, surfacing, and watching for sharks.

[Frigatebirds] glide over the open ocean for days on end, dozing in flight, and the common [swift] naps mid-glide during journeys lasting months.

Bats gamble on gravity instead, hanging upside down where tangled tendons grip them tighter the more they relax.

Sea otters float on their backs, wrapping themselves in kelp - and sometimes clasping a [companion's] paw - to avoid drifting away overnight.

Giraffes barely sleep at all, managing on brief standing snoozes punctuated by rare episodes of folding their legs like deck chairs.

Many parrots perch on one leg, tucking the limb into warm feathers and lowering their head as if pausing mid-sentence.

Chimpanzees weave an entirely new leaf mattress every evening, an act of bedtime craftsmanship our own species has mostly abandoned.

Sloths, already slow when awake, curl around a branch high in the canopy and sleep so motionless that algae grow in their fur.

Each posture answers the same blunt question: how does an animal afford unconsciousness in a world designed to punish it?

The next time you complain about a lumpy pillow, spare a thought for the bird currently asleep at sixty miles an hour.