Sleep is nature’s way of rebuilding your body after a busy day. When you sleep, your muscles relax, your heartbeat and breathing slow down and you gradually lose awareness of your surroundings. When you wake up, you’re ready for a new day. Just like you, animals need sleep. But you might be surprised at the sleeping habits- and bedrooms-of some animals. For example, a leopard above left is happiest sleeping draped over the branch of a tree. Leopards spend a lot of time in trees. They are champion hunters, sometimes leaping on animals that pass under the branches where they lie hidden. But they spend much of the day asleep and do their hunting at night. Scientists think that leopards and other mammals dream when they sleep, just as people do.
But what animals dream about is anyone’s guess. Leopards aren’t the only animals that sleep in trees. Many birds can sleep while firmly grasping a tree branch, often with one leg. Like the tree wrens shown above right, has a tree for a bedroom, too.