Do sloths sleep all the time?

When we describe someone as being slothful, we mean that they are lazy and sleepy. But does the sloth really live up to this name? Is it as lazy as the term suggests? I’m afraid that the answer is yes, although it would be unfair to say that the sloth sleeps all the time.

The main characteristic of sloth is that it does everything very, very slowly. In fact, it looks as if it is on film which has been slowed down until it has almost stopped. For example, the sloth moves about at less than half the speed of human being walking slowly. And it does do an awful lot of sleeping! Out of every twenty-four hours, a sloth sleeps for nineteen. So idle is it that algae, greenish brown slimy plants, grows in its fur. Not a very endearing animal, is it?