• Question: Some ocean animals have to breathe like every 5 minutes but do they ever sleep

    Asked by kaushil123 to Bob, Katie, Nisha, Sallie, Vee on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sallie Baxendale

      Sallie Baxendale answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      yes – they do sleep – they take really small micro naps

    • Photo: Katie McDonald

      Katie McDonald answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      I’m no expert on animals, sorry, but I do know some animals can stop breathing for more than five minutes too. I think there are whales that can dive really, really deep and basically hold their breath for half an hour or something. There’s lots of theories that they fight giant squid down there, because their beaks have been found inside whale’s stomachs! For the sleep thing, I’m less sure. I read sharks slow down all their processes and become pretty unresponsive, similar to sleep.

    • Photo: Bob Bonwick

      Bob Bonwick answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Yes they do. Whales sleep in their pods (not like a space pod).

    • Photo: Vee Mitchell

      Vee Mitchell answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      In the case of mammals that live in the water all the time eg whales, dolphins they have a special trick to let them breathe. Firstly they are what are called concious breathers – they have to make a concious effort to take a breath. Humans on the other hand breathe involuntarily – you just breath automatically you don’t have to think about it. The fact that the dolphin has to think about taking a breath means that they can’t fall asleep in the same way as we do – to fall in to an unconcious state would mean they wouldn’t be breathing at all. Although they can last up to half an hour underwater without breathing does allow them to nap but for a more restful “sleep” scientists think that they sleep one half of their brain at a time. The brain gets the rest it needs (one half at time) and the half that is still awake can breath for them – imagine how much more you could pack into your life if we could that!

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