Children invited to spend night at the Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is opening at night for the first time, to hold a sleepover among its dinosaurs.

Children will be able to sleep at the feet of Dippy, the 26-metre Diplodocus cast in the central hall, and explore the dark galleries.

Terry Lester, a member of the team planning the first Dino Snores on Saturday 16 January, said: "Over the years the museum has received thousands of calls from the public asking if we run sleepovers.

"It seems a vast number of children are eager to experience museums and galleries after the public and staff have gone home and we think visiting the Natural History Museum after dark will be a totally different experience."

Children will be given a torch-lit tour of some of the galleries, including the dinosaurs.

"They will each get a list of clues to collect in the darkened dinosaur gallery," said Mr Lester. "There will also be the chance to build a 3D dinosaur skeleton sculpture."

The museum will also put on film screenings and television naturalist Nick Baker will give a talk on bugs with one of the museum's entomologists, Erica McAllister.

The event recalls the Hollywood blockbuster Night At The Museum, in which Ben Stiller has to deal with a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that comes to life after the lights go out.

Children will get to play a treasure hunt video game called Invizimals. By completing tasks, players will receive virtual monsters they can play with on a PlayStation Portable console. The sleepover, sponsored by Sony PlayStation, will be held from 7pm to 9.50am. It is suitable for children aged 8 to 11, and tickets cost £45 each. The museum is planning to serve breakfast and supply sleeping mats, but it advised children and accompanying adults to bring their own sleeping bags and snacks. There must be at least five children and one adult to a group.

The Science Museum already runs regular Science Nights, and said they were incredibly popular. "We've been running them for 15 years and they are always booked out at least three months in advance," said manager of gallery programmes Anthony Richards. "We have 500 children each night and they sleep in with the rockets as well as going to workshops and seeing a film in our Imax cinema."

The nights have featured live music and have became so popular an adult version is now held every month. Mr Richards said: "The idea for our adult lates came from the success of the sleepovers and in fact a lot of the workshops and things people do are the same - just with a different tone for the adults."

There are also regular evening events at the Dana Centre, the museum's adult education offshoot.

Many of the capital's venues, including the British Museum, the V&A and London Transport Museum, also open late to allow office workers to visit in midweek.