What do you do before you go to bed? Put on your pajamas? Brush your teeth? Read a story?​

There are many things that people do to get ready to go to sleep. But what do animals do?​

Otters float on their backs while they sleep. Before they go to bed, they wrap themselves in seaweed blankets. That way they don’t float away from their homes. Sometimes they hold hands with their friends while they are sleeping so they don’t get separated.

Walruses sleep on land and in the ocean. They may hook their tusks into the ice before they go to bed to stay in one place. Walruses often sleep for 20 hours a day. But they can swim for over 80 hours before they need to rest.

Like walruses, bats sleep a lot. Their feet can lock into place while they sleep. The locking allows them to sleep upside down while their feet hold onto a rock or branch.​

Giraffes only sleep about 4 hours a day. They can sleep standing up or lying down. Elephants sleep even fewer hours. They stop moving their trunks when they are asleep.​

Birds sleep in a different way. Half of their brain goes to sleep while the other half stays awake. Then the halves switch. That way they can keep flying even while they are sleeping!​

Like birds, crocodiles sleep with half of their brain at a time. They always have one eye open. Snakes sleep with both eyes open. They don’t have eyelids. Snakes can sleep for many days while they digest their food.​​

Fish and sharks mostly rest instead of sleep. They slow down but keep swimming. Some sharks, like nurse sharks, do seem to sleep. They even use rocks as pillows!

Next time you are getting ready to go to bed, you can think about the different ways animals sleep in the wild. You might wrap yourself in a blanket like an otter or sleep lying down like a giraffe. But you probably want to find a more comfortable pillow than a shark!