Do Ants Sleep?

Ants are the bravest and hardest working insects on this planet. They live in the Earth’s surface or in big trees. Many of them are omnivores, which means they eat everything and they live in colonies. Every colony starts with one ant, which then becomes the queen, while the other ants are workers. Worker ants are at service of their queen.

We see ants how they work all the time. So, many people wonder: do ants sleep?

Scientist have been observing ants and they have confirmed that ants do sleep. However, not in the same way as other animals.

Interestingly, queens sleep longer than workers. Actually, ants don’t sleep, but take naps. Queens nap up to 90 times per day for 6 minutes which equals to 9 hours per day.

Worker ants sleep less than their queen. They take 250 naps during one day for periods of 1 minute. So, they sleep around 48 minutes a day.

The life span of anta is connected to their sleep time. Thus, queens live few years, whereas workers live around a month. That’s why ants are so effective.