“ may have several periods of short sleep punctuated with short bursts of activity,” Mikel Delgado, a cat expert at Feline Minds, tells Inverse. “Why an animal sleeps, much less why one species such as a cat may sleep more than other species, remains unknown,” Pankratz says.Īgain, cats don’t sleep in one big chunk, which may allow them to rest more over longer periods. Scientists still don’t fully understand why sleep is important for any creature - cats and humans, included - which makes it hard to nail down why our feline friends seem to require more sleep than humans and even other animals. Why do cats sleep so much?Ĭats’ sleeping habits have deep evolutionary roots. And a 2007 study found caged cats in a shelter were easily disturbed or alert 70 percent of the time, and asleep for only 11 percent of the time. During the daytime, they spent 22 percent of the time in a resting state. A 1981 study found farm cats spent 40 percent of their time asleep - usually at night. While recommendations say adult humans should get between 7 and 8 hours of sleep, the number of hours a cat may sleep varies significantly depending on its age and environment. Molly DeVoss, a certified feline training and behavior specialist who runs the nonprofit Cat Behavior Solutions, tells Inverse: “Unlike us, get that sleep in the form of short ‘cat naps’ throughout the day they typically don’t sleep in big chunks of time.” Pankratz says that your cat might not actually be sleeping during that entire period. Reports vary, but most experts suggest cats sleep somewhere between 12 to 15 hours a day, though they could rest for as few as 10 hours or as many as 20 hours.īut looks can be deceiving. How much sleep do cats need every day?Ĭats may rest for longer than humans, but they’re probably not fully asleep the entire time. “Perhaps cats are trying to tell us that people need more sleep,” Katherine Pankratz, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist, tells Inverse. You might even learn a thing or two from your cat’s napping prowess. Inverse speaks with four pet experts to demystify the puzzling complexity of cat’s sleeping behaviors, including how to keep them from waking you up at night. While their humans are hard at work, cats will often snooze away much of the day, in a favorite sun-baked spot or even on their owners’ laps.īut do cats really need as much sleep as we think they do? And is too much sleep ever a bad thing for cats? It’s normal, and a good reminder we should all probably be getting better sleep. Perhaps too much? If you’re worried about your feline friend sleeping the day away, don’t fret. They needn’t worry about hunting down their next meal, they get on-demand attention, and they sleep - a lot. House cats have a pretty great life, all things considered.
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