Horse Sleeping Patterns

Just like us, horses must sleep to stay energized and healthy throughout the day. But how much do horses sleep and what about horse sleeping patterns? Horses can sleep both standing up and lying down. Horses are able to sleep standing up because a “stay apparatus” in their legs allows them to relax their muscles and sleep without falling over.

Humans tend to need an unbroken period of sleep, but horses do not. Horses sleep in short periods of rest. Horses usually spend anywhere from four to fifteen hours a day in standing rest (not to be confused with sleep), and from a few minutes to several hours lying down. The total sleep time in a day may range from several minutes to two hours.

Horses require approximately two and a half hours of sleep, on average, in a twenty-four hour period. Most of this sleep occurs in many short intervals of about fifteen minutes each. These short periods of sleep consist of five minutes of slow-wave sleep, followed by five minutes of rapid eye movement sleep (REM) and then another five minutes of slow-wave sleep.

Horse REM Sleep

Rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep, REMS) is a unique phase of sleep in mammals and birds, distinguishable by random/rapid movement of the eyes, accompanied with low muscle tone throughout the body, and the propensity of the sleeper to dream vividly.

Horses must lie down to reach REM sleep. They only have to lie down for an hour or two every few days to meet their minimum REM sleep requirements. If a horse is never allowed to lie down, after several days it will become sleep-deprived. Horses sleep better when in groups because some animals will sleep while others stand guard to watch for predators. For information on horse sleep patterns, contact your veterinarian. For a list of horse clinicians in Colorado, provided to you by Colorado Horse Property, check out our Local Resources page.