The average human being is good to go with a night’s sleep of about 8 hours. However there are animals on the planet that need a lot more sleep than that. Five of the sleepiest animals in the world are described here. At number five is the North American Opossum which needs to sleep for about 18 hours a day.

The fourth sleepiest is the Giant Armadillo who needs about 18.1 hours of rest. It is the largest living species of armadillo. It lives in South America, and is found all the way south till Argentina. Third in line is the Brown Bat which needs 19.9 hours of sleep. The little mouse eared bat belonging to the species Myotis is extremely common in North America.

At number two we have the sloth who sleeps for 20 hours a day. This arboreal mammal is noted for it’s slowness of movement and has inspired enough stories and sayings. Usually found in Central and South America, the sloth is often hanging upside down in the trees of the tropical rainforests.

Taking the number one position on our countdown is the Koala. A koala bear can sleep from 20 to 22 hours in a day. It is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It would make an interesting science project to list how different animals sleeping habits differ in the wild as compared to in captivity.