Ants have a pretty bizarre approach to sleep. They don’t take one long nap like we do; instead, they take a bunch of super short naps throughout the day—kind of like power napping champions. Imagine if instead of getting your full eight hours at night, you took about 250 tiny naps that were only a minute long! That’s what ants do. 

Worker ants take micro-naps lasting just about a minute each, but they do it around 90 times a day. It’s like they have a snooze button on repeat! Now, while this might sound like the ants are getting ripped off on sleep, it actually works out pretty well for them. These tiny naps add up to about 4-5 hours of rest in a 24-hour period, which keeps them alert and ready to tackle ant life—building tunnels, finding food, and making sure the colony is running smoothly. 

But here’s where it gets really interesting—queen ants are on a whole different level when it comes to sleep. The queens, who have the royal gig, get to sleep for longer stretches. They still take multiple naps, but each one lasts much longer, allowing them to get about 9 hours of sleep per day. Imagine being able to sleep twice as much as everyone else just because you’re the queen! Talk about royal privileges. 

This unique nap schedule means that, unlike humans, ants don’t really have a “nighttime” when everyone is asleep. Instead, the whole colony is constantly in action, with some ants resting while others work. It’s like a never-ending relay race—while one group takes a nap, another is out foraging or keeping the nest tidy. 

This 24/7 operation is why ants always seem to be on the go. They're basically tiny, organized insomniacs who manage to stay productive by taking hundreds of mini-siestas!