You know how when babies are newborns they sleep around the clock, and well-meaning people who have long forgotten what it's like to care for a newborn tell you to "sleep when the baby sleeps"?
Well, it turns out that Chinstrap penguin parents have figured out how to make that work.
Researchers, at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in France, used remote EEG monitoring to study the sleep patterns of nesting chinstrap penguins, and found that by taking somewhere between 10,000 and 14,000 four-second naps throughout the day gives them a whopping 11 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period. That's pretty darn good for a new parent, and the amount that scientists consider adequate sleep for adult penguins.
Unfortunately for human parents, our species hasn't quite mastered the 4-second micronap, which is a real shame since we would only need to take like 8,000 to get our daily sleep needs met.
National Geographic senior editor Christine Dell'Amore told Fox News Digital,
The fact that this penguin species has figured out this clever strategy of micronapping is very impressive ... It's also very relatable research, since it shows how our problems are often similar to those of wild animals: All parents, regardless of their species, need sleep.
Since both mom and dad penguins share the burden of parenting, nesting, and feeding their babies regurgitated seafood, they also share unusual sleeping patterns.
Ah, the joys of not being a mammal.
The study did not look at non-incubating penguins, so it's not clear if the micronapping is unique to parents, but researchers think it must be, because why would non-parents choose to live that way?
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