• Question: Is it true that ants don’t sleep?

    Asked by anon-189198 to Yousef, Rachel, Petrina, Michael, Jason, Emma on 8 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-189178.
    • Photo: Rachel Sharman

      Rachel Sharman answered on 8 Nov 2018:


      Hi Olivia, nope thats false! Everything we have studied so far sleeps, or has some sort of rest period.

      Ant sleep is really quite cute and one of surprise facts I throw out to students.

      Queen ants sleep for almost half a day. The worker ants then use her sleep time to have short little power naps.

      The cute thing is, the ants all work in separate small groups. Each group then naps together whilst other groups work. Each group takes it in turn to grab a power nap.

      I always imagine this like a school. If the headteacher takes a nap, then each class can sneak in a few minutes each whilst the others work!

      This difference in sleep is why we think the queen ant can live for a very long time (years) whereas the worker ants, who have less sleep, only live a few months.

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