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Wild Orangutans Nap to Offset Sleep Lost to Social Nesting

Observations reveal social nesting cuts nighttime rest, prompting orangutans to regain lost sleep through daytime naps.

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Overview

  • Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, University of Konstanz and Universitas Nasional published the findings June 25 in Current Biology.
  • Each extra nearby orangutan shortens an individual’s sleep period by about 14 minutes, chiefly through earlier wake-ups.
  • Orangutans compensate for every hour of lost nest rest with a 12.3% increase in daytime napping, equating to roughly 10 extra minutes.
  • Day nests are simpler and built in under two minutes, while night nests take around ten minutes to construct.
  • Fourteen years of data on 53 adult orangutans at Sumatra’s Suaq Balimbing station show how social proximity and environmental pressures drive adaptive sleep homeostasis.