4 minute read
A Cat's Dream
The average feline sleeps up to 15 hours per day, with some cats even sleeping up to 20 hours in a 24-hour period. Cats are one of the sleepiest animals and prefer having short and long naps throughout the day instead of having one long sleep at night like humans. Domesticated cats sleep much more than wild cats as wild cats see sleep as more of a luxury and kittens need even more sleep than middle-aged cats as they are putting all their energy into growing. The only animals that get more slumber than cats are possums and bats, therefore many have wondered whether cats dream or not as their sleep takes up the majority of their life. Do they dream? If so, what do they dream about?
Research has confirmed that cats' brains are very active during their sleep and have similar sleep stages as humans, therefore they do in fact dream, and the twitching that they do whilst sleeping is a sign of our kitties having an energetic dream. Like us, cat’s brains process the information and experiences that have occurred during that day, meaning that they probably have a very similar style of dreams as us. As they curl up anywhere and everywhere during the day, they take in what has happened to them and around them during the day and with that information, they create a dream world just like people do.
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To understand what our friendly felines are dreaming about, it’s important to look at the science behind their sleep. Although they tend to sleep their life away, cats sleeping stages are identical to humans and so scientists have managed to do a lot of research on their sleep, and therefore their dreaming habits. Cats usually fall asleep pretty quickly into a non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stage like us where they don’t experience much activity or dreaming at the beginning. As they get into a deeper sleep, they progress to the rapid eye movement (REM) stage. This is where the most vivid and active dreams take place in not only cats but humans too.
Another thing that we share in common with them is the twitching movement that we sometimes do during sleep. If you look closely whilst your cat is snoozing, you will see their paws kicking out, nose scrunching and the ears twitching which means that they are deep in their REM sleep stage and are having a very vivid dream. Cats have much shorter periods of REM sleep at roughly 6 minutes per snooze, whilst us humans have around 90-120 minutes of it. Evidently, they have much shorter dreams than us but their neurons are still firing and so their brain manages to construct a storyline even in this short period of time.
Unfortunately, we cannot sit down with our cats and ask them what they dream about, but we can make educated guesses based on the knowledge that we do have on cats sleeping habits. Anything our cats do throughout the day, whether it’s chasing a mouse, playing with toys, eating far too much food, is being processed whilst they sleep and re-lived in their dreams. Like humans, felines will dream about what they know along with the random details in our dreams that never really make sense. Therefore, they are most likely a mix of realistic experiences for them like playing, eating and going on adventures with silly and illogical images thrown in.
If you look closely whilst your beloved cat is sleeping, you can spot the signs of what stage of sleep they are in and therefore identify whether they are dreaming or not. For younger cats and kittens, during their REM sleep stage where their dreams occur, they will be twitching their eyes and muscles to match their movements in their dream. But as cats grow older, the sudden twitches and movements during their sleep decrease and most of their dreaming takes place when they are fully relaxed in a deep sleep and therefore not moving much at all.
Our cats never fail to surprise us, and when it comes to sleeping, some kitties go the further step, literally, and can actually sleepwalk. This sleep disorder is usually only in cats with brain damage. In a study done by Professor Michel Jouvet from Claude-Bernard University in France, he examined sleepwalking cats and found that some would crouch low as if they were hunting a mouse whilst others would hunt for food or play with make-believe toys. However, as interesting as this sounds, if your feline has ever shown signs of sleepwalking, it’s best to notify and take them to your vet as it is a serious sign of brain damage.
A final fact I’ll leave you with is one of the nicest and most wholesome things about cats. Staying on the topic of their sleeping behaviour, most cats will actually try to adjust their sleeping patterns to match their owners in an attempt to play and spend as much time as possible with you whilst you’re awake and also cuddle up next to you whilst you sleep. This adorable behaviour shows just how pure and lovely felines are, and anyone who says differently just misunderstands them.
