Do Turtles Sleep at Night?

Like most animals, turtles need to sleep, but unlike most other animals, turtles have a very unique way of sleeping.

Most turtles sleep between 4 and 6 hours during the night. Turtles need to sleep fewer hours than humans, so they are still active during some parts of the night, but a good part of the night is spent sleeping.

But, there are over 300 different turtle species and not all of them have the exact same sleeping habits, some prefer to sleep during the day, rather than the night. Some prefer to sleep at the bottom of a lake, while others in piles of leaves and some covered in mud. Some turtles’ breath through their butt while sleeping, and some sleep for 2 to 3 months at a time. So let’s take a closer look at how turtles sleep.

How Turtles Sleep Underwater

More than half of the known turtle species are semiaquatic, which means that they spend most of their time in or under the water, but they still need to come out to the surface to breath. With the exception of sea turtles which can stay underwater for hours, most turtles can only spend about 10 minutes. But when they are sleeping, they can stay submerged for about 4 hours. And they manage to do this by breathing through their butts.

At the back end of a turtle you will find its tail, and right under it, you will see a small hole, that hole is the cloaca, and while it functions like most back ends do, it can do something extra.

When turtles are underwater the cloaca will suck small amounts of water inside, and transport the small amounts of oxygen naturally found in water to the lungs, then it will push the water back, and repeat the cycle.

Under normal circumstances, the amount of oxygen gathered by the cloaca is almost insignificant, but when turtles sleep their heart rate is reduced, as well as their overall body activity, which means that they don’t need as much oxygen in order to function properly. So the air from the cloaca is able to keep the turtle submerged for a few extra hours.

But at some point the cloaca won’t be able to keep up with the oxygen needs. And if that happens and the turtle is really tired and wants to sleep some more, it will simply swim to the surface to fill its lungs with oxygen that it will go back underwater to sleep.

If you would like an in-depth look at how the cloaca functions, you can check out my article: Do Turtles Have Gills? (How Turtles Breathe Underwater), where I cover in more detail how it extracts oxygen from the water and what other functions it serves.

As for where they sleep, most turtle prefer to sleep at the bottom of the lake in dense vegetation, or any other place that will hide them well enough, so that no predator will be able to reach and attack them.

Most turtles will sleep underwater, but not all are able to do so. The turtle family splits into three distinctive groups.

Aquatic turtles which are able to sleep underwater, here are a few members of this group:

Red Eared Sliders
Painted Turtles
Pond Turtles
Map Turtles
Wood Turtles

Land turtles, which are also known as tortoises, those turtles are unable to sleep or breathe underwater, here are a few members of this group:

Box Turtle
Russian Tortoise
Hermann Tortoise
Greek Tortoise
Indian Star Tortoise

The third group is the sea turtle group, which lives and sleeps underwater, but just like the rest of the turtles, they need oxygen in order to survive. So even if they spend so much time underwater, they still need to get out for air from time to time.

Now let’s see how the land turtles sleep.

How Turtles Sleep on Land

On land things are much simpler than underwater, as turtles simply look for a safe place to sleep, retract in their shell and go to sleep.

While turtles have their trusty shell to protect them from predators, even the shell has its limits, so instead of simply relying on their shell to protect them, turtles and tortoises prefer to hide while they sleep.

On land, the most popular spelling spots are piles of leaves which can hide the turtle, like in this picture.

Small caves, like in this example.

Other good sleeping spots are piles of rocks, tall grass, tree hallows, and any form of dense vegetation.

One exception to all what we discussed is the Galápagos Tortoise, which is the biggest land turtle that exists.

Galápagos Tortoises live on the Galápagos Islands, where they are safe from most terrestrial predators. And when they reach adulthood they are so big that there is absolutely nothing on the islands that can hurt them, so they don’t have to hide or retract in the shell. They simply lay their head on the ground and sleep, knowing that nothing can harm them.

How Sea Turtles Sleep

Sea turtles sleep the same way that semiaquatic turtles do, hidden from possible predators, and they rely on the cloaca to stay underwater for longer.

How Pet Turtles Sleep

Despite being safe from any type of predator, pet turtles have the same instincts that wild turtles do, so they will usually try to hide while they sleep. There are some cases in which pet turtles manage to overcome their instincts and won’t hide in their shells while sleeping and won’t look for any safe spot, but those cases are usually not that common. And they don’t reflect on how well their owners take care of them.

A turtles’ main priority is survival, so no matter how safe they really are, they don’t want to risk anything, so they will always be cautious.

The only turtle that won’t hide or retract in its shell while sleeping is the Galápagos Tortoise, that we discussed earlier.

But one thing that you won’t see a pet turtle do that a wild one will, is sleep for entire months, which is also known as hibernation.

Turtle Hibernation

Turtles will usually sleep for 2 to 3 months every year uninterrupted. But they don’t do this because they are very tired or lazy, they do it in order to survive. During winter, turtle have almost no food to eat. Another reason why they do this is because turtles are reptiles.

Turtles are reptiles, which means that they are cold-blooded animals. Cold-blooded animals are not able to generate body heat, and they rely on the surrounding temperature to heat their body. So turtles are very sensible to even the smallest change in temperature.

When the weather starts to get cold, the metabolism of a turtle will start to slow down. And as a result, their hearts will start to slow down, along with all other processes that happen in their bodies. This is similar to what happens when they normally sleep, but it’s even more extreme.

In general the heart of a turtle beats between 40 and 45 times per minute, when they hibernate they will slow down to around 10 beats per minute. This should give you an idea on how much they slow down during hibernation.

As a result of this slow down, they will need considerably less oxygen, and this gives the cloaca a real opportunity to shine. While the turtle is sleeping, the cloaca is able to provide enough oxygen to keep the turtle underwater for 3 or 4 hours, but when the turtle is hibernating the cloaca can provide oxygen for months. Most turtles have to hibernate for about 3 months each year, but there have been cases when they had to do it for 4 or 5 months, and during this time the cloaca managed to provide enough oxygen for the turtle to survive.

The fact that turtles don’t need to generate heat to warm their bodies is also very helpful during hibernation because, unlike mammals that hibernate, turtles don’t need to use energy to warm their bodies, which means that they need less oxygen. But this also means that they have to be very careful with the place where choose to hibernate.

Most semiaquatic turtles choose to hibernate at the bottom of a lake, but if they think that the lake is too shallow and will freeze completely, they will look for a hibernation spot on land. If a turtle is caught in ice, the cloaca won’t be able to provide oxygen and their internal organs will be damaged.

The same thing can happen outside the water as well, so most land turtles will look for a spot that will provide some cover during the winter, either inside a cave, or most commonly they will dig a hole in the ground and cover themselves with dirt. This will keep the freezing temperatures at bay.

Turtles are able to do all those amazing things because they reduce their metabolic rate. But reducing the metabolic rate can also have some unpleasant side effects. One of the bad things that happen is that they have a hard time getting rid of the lactic acid that accumulates. Lactic acid is the same thing that gives us muscle soreness, so you can imagine how unpleasant it can be for the turtle to wake up after a long sleep with muscle cramps all over its body.

To neutralize the lactic acid, turtles use magnesium and calcium that they’ve stored in their shells. If they didn’t do that, the lactic acid builds up would be too big, and they wouldn’t be able to wake up from hibernation at all.

The calcium and magnesium that they used would have helped them grow, but because getting rid of the lactic acid was more important, they had to use it for that. This is another bad side effect, turtles won’t be able to grow when they hibernate. And growing isn’t something superficial for turtles, it’s something that can save their lives. The bigger they get, the fewer predators will come after them.

Why Turtles Sleep During the Night and Not During the Day

The main reason why turtles sleep during the night and not the day is simple, it’s safer.

During the night, there are fewer predators active, especially birds, who can be a really big problem for smaller turtles.

During the day, if a predator spots a turtle, the turtle is most often than not able to run away or defend itself. And this happens because turtles are always on alert. But when they sleep, they are vulnerable. So they chose to rest when there are fewer dangers.

There is also the myth that turtles can see in the dark, which is not entirely false. If you want to know more about that, or see a few examples of how turtles see during the night, you can check out this article and the pictures inside of it: How Turtles See in The Dark (with Pictures)

Turtles That Sleep During the Day

If you own a pet turtle, you probably have noticed by now that it tends to take small naps while it’s basking. This is a common thing among pet turtles, but it can also happen in the wild.

As I mentioned, earlier turtles can’t generate their own body heat, so they have to really on their surroundings to warm up. The most common way to do this is by basking in the sun a few hours every day.

In the wild, there aren’t always that many good and safe basking spots, it’s not uncommon to see a lot of turtles basking in the same area. And when this happens, they usually feel safer, since they will be alerted by the other turtles when there is danger nearby.

Some turtles feel safe enough that they will take small naps while basking. Those naps will usually last between 5 and 30 minutes, depending on how safe they feel. But in most cases they won’t sleep for hours because it can be risky.

Final Thoughts

The sleeping habits of turtles are greatly affected by their species and the environment. But as a general idea, you can say that turtles sleep for about 4 to 6 hours a night, and they will try to find a place as safe as possible.

Most turtles that can sleep underwater will do so since there are fewer dangers underwater than on land. And the reason why they can sleep underwater is the cloaca, which is able to absorb small amounts of oxygen from the water.

I hope this article answer all your questions about how, when and where turtles sleep. But in case you have any questions left, feel free to leave them in the comment section below, my colleagues and I regularly check the comments section and answer all questions that we can find.