You Can Dream Trivia Quiz

Answer: Egyptian desert snail

The snail (Sphincterochila boissieri) is typically active for less than a month each year, going into aestivation (a kind of dormancy) to survive the heat of the desert.

One snail, complete with an identification label, used to form part of a collection at the British Museum. It woke up four years later leaving an empty space and a slime trail, much to the bemusement of the museum staff.

Answer: Dolphin

Because its breathing is not automatic, a dolphin needs to be conscious in order to breathe. To give its brain a chance to recuperate, it performs unihemispheric sleep with each half of the brain taking a turn to go sleep. The other half keeps the breathing going and looks out for danger using the opposite eye (right eye with left brain hemisphere, and vice-versa).

"Logging" is the term typically applied to dolphins and other cetaceans drifting asleep on or near the surface.

Answer: Giraffe

Rarely resting for more than five minutes at a time and often sleeping whilst standing, the giraffe is reportedly the shortest-sleeping creature in the animal world. Why? To reduce their vulnerability to predators. Getting up from sleeping on the ground is also a time-consuming exercise, adding risk, so standing sleeps are preferred.

Answer: Sea otter

Sea otters are known for sleeping at sea, although some do come ashore to sleep. Perhaps to prevent themselves drifting away, they will often sleep on their backs in groups, sometimes holding hands, and sometimes enmeshed in sea kelp to anchor them.

Answer: Frigatebird

This long-distance traveller can be away from land for up to ten days in the case of the great frigatebird species. Sleeping on the sea is not really an option as its feathers are water-permeable. It is believed to use the unihemispheric sleep technique. Birds tagged with altimeters have confirmed that they remain airborne throughout such flights.

It solves the feeding on the wing problem by catching flying fish, harassing other birds until they drop their catch or eating fish leaping into the air to escape the attentions of tuna or dolphin.

Answer: Duck

Perhaps the source of the expression "have your ducks in a row", meaning to organise things well, ducks will often line up in a row when going to sleep. Practising unihemisphere sleeping, the end ones keep the eye facing away from the group open to watch out for danger.

Answer: Meerkat

Meerkats typically pile in a heap to sleep for warmth. Living underground in burrows helps the meerkats to regulate their temperature. There are numerous sleeping chambers in a burrow, although only one will usually be used at any one time. They will move to another chamber when the build up of contaminants is too great.

Answer: Koala

The koala is said to sleep for up to 20 hours per day. The little brown bat of North America closely rivals the koala. Why does the koala sleep so much? This is attributed to the poor nutritional and calorific content of its normal diet of eucalypt leaves.

Answer: Wood frog

During hibernation, the North American wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus or Rana sylvatica) can go through a number of freeze-thaw cycles with no ill-effect. When it start to freeze, urea and glucose in the frog limit the amount of ice that forms and reduces the osmotic shrinkage of cells. The heart also stops. When it defrosts, the heart starts up again and the frog revives.

Answer: Fire ant

Fire ant workers manage just under five hours of sleep in chunks of just over a minute per sleep on average. This means that 80% of the colony is active at any one time. The queen ant has a more leisurely day, managing an average of nine hours per day in 90 sleeps of six minutes.