CNN —The art of nodding off appears to have been mastered by breeding chinstrap penguins, who take more than 10,000 naps a day, with each nap lasting an average of four seconds, according to a new study. They observed that the penguins in the colony engaged in more than 600 bouts of microsleep an hour. A 1986 study found captive, nonbreeding emperor penguins to have fragmented sleep called “drowsiness,” which also resembles the microsleep pattern of the breeding chinstrap penguins. He added that through these short bursts of sleep the penguins could “sleep and remain vigilant” while incubating. “I think that’s why it’s important to study sleep.

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Persons: King George Island, ecophysiologist Paul, Antoine Libourel, ” Libourel, Federico Anfitti, Libourel, “, they’d, ”, Christian Harding, Vladyslav Organizations: CNN, Neuroscience Research, of Lyon, University of California, University of Oxford Locations: France, South Korea, Germany, Antarctica, “, microsleeps, San Diego