Where Do Snails Sleep?

From a very early age, snails begin to grow their shells, which provides them some level of safety from predators as well as a place to sleep. A snail’s shell is like its armor and its bedroom, but they can’t have friends over for a slumber party. Since they carry their homes with them everywhere they go, snails can sleep just about anywhere.

If you’ve ever seen snails crossing a sidewalk on a rainy day, you know that they prefer a wet environment. Just be careful not to step on them! They’re likely trying to find food and a new place to sleep.

Snails will relocate when conditions in their environment become unfavorable, or if the conditions become favorable for moving around. Snails create a type of mucus, which they need lots of moisture to produce, that allows them to stick to just about any surface.

This means that snails can sleep while hanging from walls, upside down on decorations, upside down from the leaves of a tree, beneath the substrate of their aquarium, or anywhere else they find themselves in need of rest.