How Much Do Ants Sleep?
WouterDuring a study of sleep patterns in ants, researchers found that queens sleep more than worker ants. In fact, queens can sleep as long as nine hours a day. They also take frequent naps of up to six minutes. During sleep, the antennae of queens vibrate.
The researchers bred fire ant colonies in an artificial chamber, and kept the workers under constant observation. They found that 80 percent of the ants were awake at any given time. Some workers fell asleep at irregular intervals, but most workers remained awake throughout the day.
Worker ants are used as symbols of efficiency in industry. They take short naps to keep the workforce active. They also take turns taking naps to protect the queen’s territory. They may take up to 250 short naps a day.
The length of ant sleep varies between species and within a colony. In most cases, workers take advantage of periods of quiet to sleep.
The average worker ant takes over a minute nap per day, while queens take nine minutes. In addition, they take hundreds of short power naps. This is necessary to conserve energy. Queens are able to sleep up to nine hours a day, and their sleeping habits are more regular than that of workers.
The study also found that some workers never fell asleep at the same time. They would go through cycles of less than five minutes, and sometimes would just doze off. This is known as diapause. During diapause, ants can freeze to death.
