Neither the sloth nor the cat: This is the world’s sleepiest animal

On average, most humans need about seven to nine hours of quality sleep per night - less than what we needed during the first two years of our lives, and much less than many other mammals.

If you have a pet dog or cat, they’ll likely spend a larger part of the day snoozing than you do - a minimum of 12 hours napping, off and on, during the day.

And some species are quite content to spend practically the whole day doing nothing at all, conserving their energy for only the most vital activities. There are a number of reasons for that - different resting metabolic rates, diets that are low in nutrition, biological makeup... habitats that might force them to rest.

The animal world’s top sleepers

No animal on the planet enjoys taking an extended nap more than a koala, Australia’s treasured symbol. Koalas are most commonly found in the eucalyptus forests that stretch along Australia’s eastern coast. They feed almost exclusively on eucalyptus leaves - a diet that is so low in nutrients, and difficult to digest, that it forces them to lead a very sedentary lifestyle.

On average, Koalas sleep for anything between 18 and 22 hours a day, giving them the title of the sleepiest member of the animal kingdom.

A different pace of life for Sloths

The next nap-loving animal on the list has a name which is associated with being a lazy layabout - the easygoing Sloth. Found in the tropical rainforests of South America and Central America, usually casually hanging upside down among the trees, sloths are never in a rush to do anything - well, apart from sleeping.

They have very low metabolic rate, and the three-toed variety are herbivores whose diet consists solely of leaves which take a very long time to digest, up to a month - so understandably, they have to take it easy.

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