How Many Hours Do Hamsters Sleep

You are always wondering how many hours hamsters sleep. But first, let’s consider this. We do know that sleep is just as important for a healthy hamster as it is for a healthy person.

Of course, it is only natural to wonder “why is my hamster sleeping so much”. This is when you watch your cute little fluffy ball dozing off day in and day out. In this piece, we’ll specifically look into this.

How many hours should your hamster sleep? Are hamsters nocturnal all day? My hamster is napping. Is my hamster ill?

Continue reading to learn the answers to these and other questions.

Do hamsters go to bed?

It may appear like your hamster sleeps all the time, especially to new hamster owners!

Therefore, there is something you need to know about hamster sleep patterns. This is if you are taking care of your very first hamster. And you are thinking that there is something wrong because she is sleeping so much. So the question that comes back to mind is “how long do hamsters sleep?”

Hamsters are either active in low light and at dawn or twilight. Or nocturnal (active at night).

In either scenario, hamsters spend most of the day sleeping. And are more active when the sun is rarely or never visible.

This sleep-waking rhythm has a straightforward evolutionary explanation. In the wild, several breeds of wild hamsters dwell in habitats that get quite warm throughout the day. Thus, the wild hamster effectively adapted in two important ways to withstand the heat of the day.

They live underground in burrows that they have dug. During the day, they sleep, and at night, they hunt, mate, and socialize.

Hamsters sleep at what times?

Hamsters mostly rely on getting all of their required sleep during the day.

Their health may start to deteriorate if they don’t get enough sleep. Higher stress levels might also cause them to become hostile or even bite.

Sleep deprivation in hamsters also affects memory and daily task performance. Just like it does in sleep-deprived humans.

A hamster’s lifespan may be cut short by poor sleep.

You do not want any of these results for your priceless child! 

How long do hamsters sleep depending on patterns?

It’s rare for hamster owners to be home all day to watch their pet’s true sleep-wake patterns. If this applies to you, you might be curious about how long a hamster sleeps.

Here, daily sleep cycles might differ from one hamster to the next. Just as one person can need more sleep each day while another might need less. Nevertheless, they hold true among hamster breeds.

The amount of sleep your hamster needs each day may also depend on its stage of life.

One Syrian hamster, for instance, may need more or less sleep than another Syrian hamster.  Even if they must be kept alone. Dwarf hamsters housed in pairs may experience more variation in their sleep schedules. This is a result of the effect of their cage mates’ sleeping and waking behaviors.

You must have this in mind if you own hamsters as a pet. A pet hamster normally sleeps between six and eight hours per day. The majority of those hours occur during the daytime, as long as it is otherwise healthy.

This is particularly crucial to understand at first. When you are still getting to know your new pet hamster.

In this way, you are aware that the majority of hamsters sleep for six to eight hours every day during day. You can decide when it’s time to book an appointment with your vet. That’s if your pet hamster consistently sleeps for more than 12 hours at a time or sleeps day and night.

Once you are familiar with when your hamster is most likely to go to sleep and get up. You will be better able to identify sleep cycle variations that might point to a problem. After getting the answers to the question “how many hours do hamsters sleep?”, let’s talk about waking them up.

Get your hamster out of bed

Remember the last time someone abruptly awakened you up from a deep sleep? It would have felt somewhat disconcerting, am I right?

They might have had a compelling motive for waking you up. But until you had reoriented yourself to abruptly being awake, you didn’t give any thought to that.

If you attempt to abruptly wake up your pet hamster, she will respond similarly. She might not be as gracious in expressing her annoyance at being rudely awakened, unlike you.

However, there are instances when you must wake your hamster up in the middle of the day because it is actually necessary.

You might, for instance, be relocating to a new house. Or you’ve arranged an appointment for her to see the vet.

No matter how good your excuse is, it’s always a good idea to plan ahead. Give your hamster some time to gradually wake up. If not, you run the danger of getting bitten or having a sick, stressed-out hamster on your hands.

Here are some suggestions for gently awaking your hamster:

Turn up the lights in the space gradually until it is completely bright.

Be kind with your hamster.

Change the food and water for your pet and keep talking quietly.

Once your hamster is awake, you can calmly handle or pet her to help her finish awakening.

Prevent setting off your hamster’s self-protective reflex. Move softly throughout the process.

Nighttime hamster sleeping

Many hamster owners are unsure whether they need to worry about their pets sleeping at night. There isn’t a single, straightforward “yes” or “no” response to this query.

Instead, it is important to sit up and pay attention any time your pet hamster deviates from what you identify as his typical sleep-wake routine. if more than one or two days have passed since the departure. This indicates that it is time to begin determining what is happening.

A hamster will sleep for a few hours during the day, wake up for a short period of time, then go back to sleep. This does not imply that your pet hamster is experiencing any problems.

In actuality, this is pretty typical. Like how you don’t go to bed at night and then sleep for eight hours straight without ever waking up.