People living in Christchurch have lost sleep over quake aftershocks that rocked the Canterbury region 41 times within a 24-hour period.

The aftershocks were all stronger than 3.3 magnitude, reaching up to 5.5 in a relatively violent shake at about 5:45 am Monday.

Due to the quakes, power supply was interrupted in thousands of homes in eastern suburbs, including Shirley, Burwood, Dallington, Richmond, and Spencerville, the New Zealand Herald reported.

The Herald spoke to an Orion Energy representative who said the plant did not sustain damages, but the transformer automatically shut itself off after a 5.5 magnitude quake, as it was designed to do. Service was restored two hours later.

While there have been no reported massive damages or injuries, the quakes have been rattling residents, with the latest shake reaching a magnitude 3.9 at 12:28 pm, at a depth of 15km and located 20km east of Christchurch, the Herald reports.

Popular website Quakelive ranked the 5.5 quake at 5:45 am as the 11th largest to hit the city since the 7.1 magnitude tremor on September 4, 2010.

The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) said there had not been any further "significant'' damage, but it warned on Twitter against too many calls and texts across Canterbury which could cause telcos' networks to overload.

Christchurch mayor Bob Parker said the people should remain calm. He also assured people that tsunamis are "highly unlikely" in the area.

"The advice we have received from GNS is that the faults offshore are short in length and not likely to generate a significant tsunami. The sea inundation to land is low risk, probably not more than a storm surge,'' the mayor told the Herald.