The Weird Sleep Trick Penguins Use to Survive in the Wild

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]First of all, I'm going to tell you an animal. Kyle, you're playing too. You ready? I'm the DJ. First of all, I'm going to name an animal.

[00:00:06]Then I'm going to ask you how many hours No, sorry. I'm going to ask you how many naps you think it takes a day. Okay. [laughter] >> Okay. All right.

[00:00:13]>> And then we're going to I'm going to give you clues from there until we try and figure it out, okay?

[00:00:16]>> Start with the animal of >> Do you know all the answers?

[00:00:18]>> I do. I just learned about this. Very fascinating.

[00:00:21]>> And you memorized it?

[00:00:22]>> I did.

[00:00:22]>> [laughter] >> Not in a dream. Okay.

[00:00:24]>> Um >> I hope. Otherwise, this is not going to be a good segment. Um >> [laughter] >> Uh okay, first of all, it's a penguin.

[00:00:31]Okay.

[00:00:32]>> Okay. So should we all get Oh, go ahead.

[00:00:33]>> No, no, it's okay. I'm just going to tell you the species cuz there's a bunch. A chinstrap penguin. Kyle, give me a pick.

[00:00:40]Never a picture. Didn't know there was such a thing as a chinstrap penguin.

[00:00:43]>> Well, that's why I think we should look at this lovely thing in Antarctica.

[00:00:46]>> used to be.

[00:00:47]>> Yeah, he's got a full-on chinstrap beard. chinstrap beard, little pencil-thin.

[00:00:50]>> He's got a Peter 1999 cheers.

[00:00:53]>> [laughter] >> Pencil-thin chinstrap.

[00:00:56]>> So this lovely guy is a chinstrap penguin, okay? Yeah.

[00:00:59]>> Now first guess we're going to take is how many naps per day, meaning a 24-hour cycle, how many naps do you think this guy takes in a day?

[00:01:08]>> Okay. So I'm I'm I'm going to basically count nap as any period of sleep. So even if it has a longer sleep, I'm just counting that as one nap. So I'm I'm going how many sleeps.

[00:01:18]>> Sure.

[00:01:19]That's what I'm doing. I'm going to say It's [ __ ] cold. It's cold. Mhm. Not a lot to do. No. I'm going to say it sleeps a lot of different times. 16. 16 is a good guess.

[00:01:32]>> I'm going to I I know that penguins when the the male stays behind and sits on the egg and protects it. So he's just sitting there all [ __ ] day.

[00:01:39]>> all day. Right, but this isn't his length of sleep yet.

[00:01:42]>> Right, we'll get to that. This is just how many naps per day.

[00:01:45]>> I'm assuming that all these animals are narcoleptic. So this this penguin takes I'm going to say 16 sounds way low. I'm going like 50. 50 naps a day.

[00:01:55]>> Kyle?

[00:01:55]>> I I I know that I'm just going to go 250. 250, okay. So, let me ask you, like [clears throat] if if I'm in math class in senior year of high school and I do this, does that count as a nap?

[00:02:07]>> Absolutely. Yeah, of course.

[00:02:08]>> In fact, that's called a micro sleep, as we're going to learn later in this segment.

[00:02:12]>> Fascinating.

[00:02:13]Okay, 1650 and 250.

[00:02:14]>> so now I'm going to give you an another clue and we're going to come back around on it.

[00:02:17]>> All right. In a single day's period, a chinstrap penguin will average about 11 hours of sleep. Okay. Okay? Now, the rest of the time they have to be foraging, looking after a baby, feeding.

[00:02:27]Mhm. I'm going to [clears throat] tell you you're all wrong and your numbers are all substantially low. Oh boy, it's So, let's take one more round of guesses and then I'll give you the number.

[00:02:36]So, 11 hours? I'm going to go >> [sighs] >> 11 hours of sleep and I think it's averaging Jeez, I think it's averaging 10 seconds now that you said micro snap or whatever it's called. Micro sleeps. So, that's six snaps. A micro nap and a micro sleep are different, by the way, and I'll we'll get into that, too.

[00:02:54]I learned a lot about this yesterday.

[00:02:55]Okay, I have a new guess. Mhm.

[00:02:58]4200.

[00:02:59]>> Wow.

[00:03:00]>> Wow. That's a good number, all right.

[00:03:02]Yikes, I think that that's that's too high. I'm going I do think it's still going to be really high. I'm going to say 2000. Okay. Yeah, I was going to go 2500.

[00:03:12]Oh my god. Even me? Even you. What's the number? Just go. Give me a higher number. 10,000.

[00:03:18]>> Yep. Jesus.

[00:03:19]>> Wow. So, it's all micro sleeps.

[00:03:21]>> It's all micro sleeps. So, scientists have just for the first time implanted these little chips in the spinal cords of chinstrap penguins. Talk about a weird and pointless thing to do.

[00:03:30]>> [laughter] >> And they found out that these guys will take up to 10,000 micro naps each day lasting only up to about 4 seconds at a time.

[00:03:42]>> was going to see You were doing the math, huh?

[00:03:44]>> going to try, but yeah, 4 seconds? That sounds hellish. Doesn't it?

[00:03:48]>> Yeah, oh my god, it sounds like a nightmare, bro. dad >> all day long. Just in and out.

[00:03:54]>> How do you get a a study like this funded? I mean Couldn't tell you.

[00:03:57][laughter] Sounds insane.

[00:03:58]>> tell you. You got to have a a billionaire uncle. I like I I The only way.

[00:04:03]>> I It's very interesting, but it's like does it push society forward [laughter] in any way? Well, that's It's funny cuz the the the thing I did on MSNBC Oh, sorry.

[00:04:11]>> you know, that's that's a If it's 10,000, that's six naps a minute. Yeah.

[00:04:16]Wow. For all 24 hours. How terrible is that? It sounds so bad.

[00:04:21]>> You can't do it. Six per minute because you have to be fishing part of the time.

[00:04:25]Or Do you know what I mean? Like So so sometimes you just have to be doing it.

[00:04:29]Yeah, yeah. Like 20 per minute. 20 per minute, yeah. What a nightmare. It's like That's just a series of micro naps when it's shaking its head?

[00:04:36]>> I guess. I don't know. But yeah, so micro nap and a micro sleep. I forget what the differentiator was, but they're different cuz humans do micro sleeps, which is what you just said, which is that like God, I'm you know, I'm out and I'm back in. But a micro nap is what these guys are doing, which is only 4 seconds and it's basically your whole body falls asleep and then you're back.

[00:04:56]Yeah, yeah. So they get Yeah, when you do it Everybody's done it. Like you're driving or something. You're really tired and you go [ __ ] >> Exactly. Yeah. No, so Wait, can I read that distinction? Cuz this is interesting. Please. A micro sleep is an involuntary and dangerous 1 to 30-second lapse into sleep due to severe deprivation often occurring with eyes open. Oh, [ __ ] Conversely, the micro nap is voluntary, intentional.

[00:05:22]Is that like when you're when you're like driving late at night and you just like don't realize how how you've drove for the past 10 minutes?

[00:05:28]>> Yeah, like your brain's powered down for like 10 seconds. Dude, you ever been driving and It's always driving. It's always driving, man.

[00:05:35]I I used to like I used to especially in high school like what you were mentioning in high school how you just fall asleep randomly. I used to like not drive after dark because I would do it if I was in the car for 10 minutes, I'd start falling asleep.

[00:05:47]>> Dude, I when I was a teenager I fell asleep driving so many times. Like Exactly. It's crazy. shouldn't be No, it's it's not true. It's because [ __ ] schools make kids go and start school like [ __ ] 8:30. It's ridiculous. Kids like teenagers go to bed at like 2:00 a.m.

[00:06:06]>> And they need to sleep a lot more. I know. It's It's [ __ ] insane. And then it ruins the parents' life. Like I got a big vendetta against the early school start. start times.

[00:06:15]>> Ray Romano had a great joke about micro naps when you're sleeping. Okay. Where he was like, I'm not going to do his voice. Do it, please. Please. Please.

[00:06:23]>> fall asleep, you almost drive off the road.

[00:06:27]And then it happens again 2 minutes later.

[00:06:29]>> [laughter] >> He's like, what other near death experience do you have and then you're still sleepy?

[00:06:34]>> Yeah. [laughter] He's like, if I'm asleep and a bullet flies through the window and lands on the bedspread, I'm not just going right back to sleep.

[00:06:40]Dude, it's so true, man. You have no control over it. You're just like, whoop, okay, let's keep going. can do, man. I've I I used to be so ballsy cuz I would always go my full day and then I would embark on a road trip overnight.

[00:06:53]So that I could get there the next night. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:57]Just the whole time slapping yourself.

[00:06:59]Just scream singing. Pulling over for a 3-minute nap at a truck stop. Chugging Monsters, taking NoDoz. Remember those gas station pills? NoDoz. They make you feel all terrible. Caffeine pills. Yeah.

[00:07:10]Yeah.