Cats Sleeping Habits

Cats are altricial animals which; means they have to be looked after. If you are a cat owner you may have noticed how much your cat sleeps.Seems like they are always sleeping. However, most cats only sleep for half the day. Some cats sleep an average of fifteen hours a day, and others sleep up to twenty hours in a twenty-four hour period. So, why do cats sleep so much?
Cats are most active between dusk and dawn, which means they sleep mostly during the day and become active around twilight. So why is it that cats are so active at night. It's mainly because cats have the physiology of a predator, meaning that they’re hardwired to give chase and hunt just like lions.
Like human beings, cats can either doze in a light sleep or sleep very deeply. When your cat dozes (which lasts about fifteen minutes to a half hour), he or she will position their body so that they can spring up and into action at a moments notice. Like us they also have dreams. If you ever notice your cat when he or she sleeps they make subtle movements with their legs, paws, whiskers or even murmur or chatter. That's when your cat is experiencing their dreams.
There is scientific evidence that cats dream. Their brains can formulate dreams during sleep. In humans, there are 4 stages of sleep. REM (rapid eye movement) is where dreams occur. Similarly, cats have 2 types of sleep - REM and non-REM (deep sleep). Cats usually stay in REM sleep for about 30 percent of their sleeping time. The brain wave patterns displayed by a sleeping cat are comparable to that in humans. However, humans only spend about 20 percent of our sleep time in REM stage except for human babies that have 80 percent of their sleep in REM.
In the non-REM stage, cats are in deep sleep. Meaning their body starts repairing itself where the energy level is being replenished, immune system bolstered and muscles and bones regenerated. Cats usually sleep for approximately 16 hours per day.

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