How Long Do Chameleons Sleep? A Guide To Night Time Care

Now whisper… You don’t want to wake them because they look so cute just softly sleeping there and look at their colourful pyjamas! They’re so pretty!

Chameleons, like all living creatures, do sleep. How long they sleep will vary from species to species and will relate to the time of year, but on average they sleep for around twelve hours every night.

In this guide I’m going to tell you all about chameleons sleeping habits, how long they sleep for and what you need to do to ensure they get a good night’s rest from all that.. err… sitting around.

How long do chameleons sleep?

Like you and me the amount of sleep a chameleon needs depends on many factors such as it’s age, how much it’s eaten, time of year and just how much energy it’s expended during the day and some days are more tiring than others.

On average, though, chameleons will sleep around twelve hours a night. Whether they actually need that much sleep is debatable, but they tend to sleep as long as the lights are off and are often in position to sleep around half an hour before lights go off. Yes, they do know when it’s lights out time, mostly.

You can alter the lighting schedule a little bit as the seasons change, so ten hours daylight and fourteen dark in winter and vice versa in summer, but I never found this necessary with my chameleon and just stuck to twelve hours on and twelve hours off.

The best way to regulate these sleep patterns is to just get yourself a reptile power strip. You need it to regulate the UVB and heat light. This one from Amazon is excellent for this.

Do chameleons sleep with their eyes open?

Chameleons may sometimes sleep with one eye open a little bit, but by and large you can tell they’re asleep as they sink their eye turrets in just a little bit, and they close the center part of the eye so it looks like a little slit.

This is the main way to tell if a chameleon is asleep or not. They will also display their most beautiful colors, what I meant by wearing their pajamas in the opening paragraph. Some will look like they’re almost white. They also display some beautiful colors if you wake them up too, but this is because they’re annoyed that you woke them up.

My beautiful sleeping veiled can be seen in the main picture. I think chameleons are at their most cutest and prettiest when they’re asleep.

Where do chameleons sleep?

You name it, they’ll sleep there, especially if it’s inside their enclosure. I don’t think there’s a single spot in my chameleon’s cage that he didn’t sleep on at some point in his life.

Captive chameleons do get into a bit of a routine. They have certain ways of sleeping, certain places they like to sleep, and they will follow these routines for a while until something, subtly or not so subtly, changes in their environment, at which point they’ll change it up again. This could be the result of a slight move of a tree or more people around than usual.

My chameleon went through a phase of sleeping like this:

It surely can’t have been very comfortable, but it was apparently good enough for him now and then.

Don’t worry if you see them sleeping on the side of the screen like this, or even upside down. Seeing my chameleon sleep upside down would absolutely terrify me, and thankfully he rarely did it, but them sleeping in weird positions is ok and just them sleeping wherever they find it comfortable.

The only time I would be concerned about a sleeping position is if it’s on the floor. Again, my chameleon rarely did this. It’s ok now and then, but when they start doing it regularly and spend a lot of time on the floor in general, then you may have a health problem developing that would require further investigation.

Are chameleons nocturnal?

Chameleons aren’t nocturnal and definitely do not sleep during the day. A day sleeping chameleon is usually a sign there’s something wrong.

This could be something easy to fix like too much UVB being provided, sap from plants might be bothering your chameleon’s eyes or an early warning sign of dehydration which can be fixed by increasing mistings. My article I wrote about watering chameleons has good advice on this.

I wouldn’t start to worry if you catch your chameleon closing their eyes for a few minutes at a time here and there as this is more likely just a result of a bit of stress they might be experiencing at that time as a result of something in their immediate environment, baby chameleons are particularly prone to this.

Also don’t worry if you see their eyes closed around an hour or less before their lights are due to go off as this is just them getting to sleep earlier than usual but yes, if you see them closing their eyes during the day regularly and for longer than a few minutes take a look at your chameleon’s enclosure and see what might be causing this and how you can fix it.

Do chameleons sleep in the dark?

They certainly do, and the darker it is for them, the better. This doesn’t mean you have to keep them in a room all to themselves, so they can sleep better or make sure your lights are a certain level of dimness so as not to disturb them, but they do need some level of darkness.

My chameleon lived in my living room, and I’m a bit of a night owl, so I had lights on, music playing and laptop screen on until the small hours, and he was in bed at around six.

I probably had more chance of bothering my neighbors than I did him. He slept like a log most nights. Having lights that are too bright will bother them a little, but as long as they’re not too near the enclosure, your chameleon will sleep well. That still begs the question:

Do chameleons need heat and light at night?

The short answer is no, but this is a reasonable question to ask because a chameleons lights are different to yours. They need light for heat and for UVB. There are red night lights available to buy, but these are completely useless as they do nothing for your chameleon.

Chameleons need to have a temperature drop at night to cool off and induce deep sleep. In fact, this temperature drop is much more important for their sleep quality than whether they’re in pitch darkness.

The amount needed varies from species to species, but anywhere around ten degrees is ideal. Veiled chameleons are particularly hardy and can cope with a light frost just fine. Where I live, the winters can get pretty damn cold at times and my heating isn’t that great, but my veiled was just fine with no heat.

If you do have concerns that the room your chameleon is in might get too cold then get a ceramic heater for night time. These just fit in a lamp fixture like a normal light bulb but chances are you won’t need one.

As for UVB at night, this isn’t necessary at all. The sun doesn’t come out at night, so need to mimic the sun coming out at night for your chameleon! They’ll get plenty of UVB during the day if you have your setup done correctly.

Night time humidity for chameleons

You can approach this in one of two ways depending on what type of chameleon you have, how great you want your enclosure to look and how much you want to replicate a chameleon’s experience in the wild.

All three of the main species kept as pets require high levels of humidity at night. To achieve this, you’ll need to have a fogger in place. This is not to be confused with a mister, which is used to provide drinking water.

Fogger create a fog that will descend over the cage during the night. This should be on a low to medium setting so as not to over saturate the cage. I wouldn’t recommend more than a few hours at most. In addition, you can set it to run an hour or so before your chameleon wakes up, so it leaves a dew on your chameleon’s plant leaves for it to drink from in the morning as supplement to their water supply.

I have to admit these do give a really cool looking affect when you see it misting over the plants. I’ve seen this one from Amazon in action and was really impressed.

Related article: Chameleon Humidity

Do chameleons eat at night?

I do not recommend attempting to feed your chameleon at night. You should make sure they get enough to eat during the day. Trying to do a feed at night will disturb their sleep patterns and stress them out.

Furthermore, it is bad for their digestion, as they won’t be able to digest feeder insects effectively in their sleep.

Try and remove any leftover feeder insects before your chameleon goes to sleep. Feeders like morio worms will be ok to leave in at night, but locusts and crickets will cause stress as they like to sometimes sit on top of your chameleon and have the odd nibble on them.

Misting them to try and get them to drink at night is also unnecessary. Fogging at night is one thing but misting them at night will just wake them up, stress them out, and they won’t drink anyway. Again, make sure they get enough to drink during the day.

Can chameleons see in the dark?

Chameleons definitely do not have the ability to see in the dark. On a number of occasions I saw my chameleon open his eyes and have a look around when the lights were out, but this is more him trying to see if something is nearby.

Can chameleons sleep walk?

Do chameleons sleepwalk? I don’t know for sure, but I do know they can certainly be a bit restless in their sleep at times. My chameleon would shuffle about some times while his eyes were closed, especially if he chose to sleep in a less conventional spot, like on the screen.

Scientists have observed REM in reptiles, and certainly I saw my veiled’s eyes move around while they were closed, so there’s a good chance they dream too. I wonder what they dream about?

My chameleon sleeps on me

Just wanted to give this a quick mention before finishing up. Many people report this and think this it’s cute. It certainly will seem that way, but your chameleon is not sleeping on you.

Remember I said earlier how chameleons sleeping during the day is a bad sign? Well chances are this is happening during the day when you’re handling your chameleon, so this won’t be a good thing.

Also, chameleons just won’t feel comfortable sleeping on you. They may look like they’re sleeping, but it’s far more likely they’re terrified and stressed because you’re handling them.

If you see your chameleon doing this just be nice and put them back in their enclosure where they’ll be happy. I know chameleons are beautiful and you want to hold yours but they really would prefer it if you left them alone. It will be better in the long run for both of you.

So hopefully this guide about sleeping chameleons didn’t turn you into a sleeping human and you got some useful information out of it.