How Do Dolphins Sleep?
My wife and I were staying in Malibu a few months ago to celebrate her birthday, and every morning we’d wake up to Dolphins parading by us in the Pacific Ocean…
So naturally, when we were sitting on the deck with a cup of coffee, watching nature glide by, I wondered: where did these dolphins sleep?
Oh, and here they are parading by us:
So How Do Dolphins Sleep?
I saw so many of them over the next few days – and I wondered where they went at night, what did they do when the sun went down?
In short: how do Dolphins sleep?
To help, here’s two minutes of my daughter and I filming a Dolphin pod as it sped alongside our boat in the Sea Of Cortez in Cabo!
Remember: we were in the water and so there is so shaky work as I tried to follow these Dolphins, but it’s worth watching as they are so close to us – and there are so many!
A Very Close Encounter!
OK, that was cool to experience up close…and to answer the question of how Dolphins sleep, leave it to the internet to provide an answer:
“Dolphins sleep by resting one half of their brain at a time – known as unihemispheric sleeping. So most of the time they sleep while still swimming. … Dolphins generally sleep at night, and alternate which side of the brain is resting approximately every two hours for around eight hours.”
There’s your answer!
Oh, and if you think it’s hard to find a Dolphin, just go to Malibu – every single day we saw more and more of them gliding by:
Of course, equally magical in Malibu are the sunsets…if you haven’t seen one, here’s a look:
As you can see, a lot of people take their dogs out to enjoy this last look at the day…truly spectacular!
I love the ocean – we’ve seen Dolphins, Seals, Sea Otters and more!
I have also shared the story of why Sandpipers do this:
I love nature!
You can find out what’s going on here by clicking on my story:
I shared a meal with a Sea Otter, who decided to dine outside of a house we rented in the gorgeous central California town of Cayucos!
I saw and watched this for hours – click here and you can watch it as well, and also discover more about this magical town:
Oh, and remember when my daughter and I spent a few days in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and ended up alongside Dolphins?
What a terrific enoucnter!
Click here to see that – as well as the whales we found as well!
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Let me know if you’d done a road trip along California’s coastline – and what sort of friendly diners you happen upon!
Categories: Exotic Travel, Memoirs, nature, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir
I love the ocean, too…and definitely sunsets…and animals and nature. Wonderful post, John. I had no idea that dolphins rested half their brain at a time.
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I kept seeing them and it made me wonder!
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🙂
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Quite interesting about the ability of dolphins to rest half of their brains while swimming. My Dad was a wildlife biologist who worked with an endangered goose called the Aleutian Canada Goose (they have since been renamed and are now the Aleutian Cackling Goose.) They are a subspecies of the Canada Goose. As their name suggests, they migrate from the Aleutian Islands to the San Joaquin Valley in California. I had the same question about them and sleeping. They usually fly at night (sometimes up to 1,500 miles in one day) and feed and rest during the day in times of migration.
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Thanks for sharing that!
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Oh,I would love to experience this!
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Great pictures and videos of the dolphins and the sandpipers, John. I knew that dolphins swam with they slept but I didn’t no about the resting half of their brains at a time. That really is interesting.
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We came upon them AFTER coming upon a pod of whales just hours earlier…it was a traffic jam in the sea!
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How lucky for you.
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What a wonder-filled adventure, John. Hugs.
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I think I must be part dolphin! I never feel as if all of my brain is asleep at the same time. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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HA! Who knows Pete!
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Fantastic encounters! I could watch them for hours!
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Yes, it was truly magical – and happened the same day as our Whale encounter!
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