Much is said about how many hours a human should slumber, but little is known about our dog's sleeping habits. They live a leisurely existence of eating, napping, snacking, and playing, but slumber is still an important part of their daily routine.
In reality, most dogs spend roughly half their day sleeping, though the precise number of hours can vary widely.
You might not be aware of this fact due to the fact that our patterns of slumber can vary quite a bit from one another, but dogs sleep significantly more than people do.
Most humans follow a diurnal sleep cycle, in which we sleep at night and are conscious and active during the day. Dogs, on the other hand, rarely slumber for the entire night.
They frequently alter their sleep requirements to accommodate their surroundings. For example, they may slumber eight hours at night because you do, but they will also nap during the day while you are at work.
There are some breeds of dog that inherently require more sleep than others in order to function at their best, so the average amount of sleep that a dog gets in a day is not always 12 hours.
What are they doing with the other 12 hours in the day? Dogs spend about 30% of their awake time “loafing,” essentially being present and awake but not partaking in any activity.
Their loafing time is akin to a human’s time spent binge-watching Netflix or reading in bed. Your dog probably spends its daily loafing period lying down and being lazy.
Puppies can sleep up to 20 hours a day because they’re rapidly growing and need bursts of energy to facilitate this growth and periods of rest afterward to recover.
Working dogs favor an active schedule with less sleep. Police and support dogs spend most of the day working, so they don't get many naps.
Humans become irritable, have difficulty thinking, and lack energy when they do not get enough slumber. It may seem odd to think that your dog can suffer from the effects of a lack of sleep, but they can.