Sunrise is the start of the day for most humans. Their daily activities begin roughly at daybreak and continue throughout the day. For this reason, humans are said to be diurnal (see definition below).
Nocturnal animals, on the other hand, are active during the night and sleep during the day. Coyotes, foxes and skunks are just a few such animals.
While most humans sleep about seven to eight hours a night, nocturnal animals have a wide range of sleeping patterns during the day. The owl monkey, for example, sleeps up to 17 hours a day, giant armadillos snooze for about 18 hours daily and bats get up to 20 hours of Zzz’s each day.
Now, that’s a good amount of shut-eye!
Cool word vocabulary question of the day: What do you think the benefits would be if you were nocturnal?
DIURNAL: Occurring daily, active during the day.
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