Elephants mostly stand while sleeping. They can also lie, but not for longer than an hour usually.The reason is because their own body weight will crush their internal organs, so lying down for longer, would slowly cause their organs to be crushed. So, like horses, they sleep standing. In general, elephants will sleep a maximum of four hours per day/night. They won't sleep at a stretch just like that of other domestic animals like dogs. They will sleep for about 30 minutes and then get up and feed on grass and then again they will go to sleep. But they will lie down for 30 minutes on the left side followed by the right side for 30 minutes. They repeat this cycle until they get about four hours of sleep.

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