Penguins and Power Naps

When you think about power naps, do you picture a penguin? I admit I don’t. But maybe we should.

Let me make my case.

First of all, penguins are adorable. They’re fun to look at and watch. Tell me you haven’t seen at least one movie, animated film, or documentary about them or at least featuring one as a character.

Happy Feet? Penguins of Madagascar? Mr. Popper’s Penguins? March of the Penguins? Even 1970’s Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town featured Topper the penguin. “Honk! Honk!”

An interesting fact the films don’t show us about these fascinating little creatures is that the chinstrap species of penguins take more than 10,000 little 4-second naps every day. According to a 2023 study published in Science, this adds up to about 11 hours of cumulative sleep each 24-hour day.

Here’s why. Chinstrap penguin eggs and chicks are vulnerable to a predatory bird called the brown skua. Both parents have to be especially vigilant in guarding their offspring, usually two at a time. While one parent goes off on days-long foraging expeditions, the other must protect the eggs and chicks constantly.

The way they do this is to sleep in short little bursts. That way they’re never really off duty.

Really, these are more microsleeps than they are power naps, at least the way we humans know them.

We sure wouldn’t be satisfied with nothing but microsleeps all day and night. Luckily, it seems to be working pretty well for the chinstrap penguins.