Cats are nocturnal animals with a strong instinct
Cats sleep up to 16 hours, but their sleep is not continuous
Cats don’t sleep in a row, it’s rare that they can stay in the same sleep phase for more than an hour or two. Despite this, it is true that they are very sleepy, they are able to sleep up to 16 hours a day and go through many phases of semi-lethargy, especially when there is not much to do at home and nothing attracts their attention.
All this means that we should not trust ourselves and think that the cat is going to be able to sleep for hours, as we do.
Don’t lock him in a room
Locking it in a room to “sleep” would be very counterproductive, because the first thing that goes through the mind of a cat that knows it is locked up is: how can I get out of here? And he’s never so sleepy that he doesn’t know you’ve closed the door.
It is their survival instinct, for this reason cats do not reach the REM phase , which is precisely what would allow them to have a better memory and strengthen synaptic connections to learn more and better.
The nights are not for sleeping
Although cats have greatly modified their behavior, their internal clock is nocturnal. This makes them sleep more during the day than at night, and it is in the dark where they feel more adventurous and lively. Energy flows through their bodies when the moon is the only light coming through the windows, so they are programmed to hunt, stealthily and with all the darkness on their side. This makes sleeping at night a contradiction for cats, as they want to throw a party.
It will not be strange that very often you hear him meow, it is a call for you to join the most energetic moment of the day. Keep in mind that at those times, the cat will also be hungry and thirsty,and that is precisely a way in which we can appease him and offer him some rest, when eating his body assumes that something has hunted, and he can fall asleep better during digestion.
Not one bed will do, but many
As soon as you observe your cat’s behavior, you will realize that it does not stop still. Did you buy him a bed? It is very likely that you would end up thinking that it was a useless purchase, the cat may or may not want to sleep in it, it may use it sometimes or it may never. It is unpredictable, because for a cat the concept “place to sleep” does not make any sense.
However, you may think, can’t you determine that the bed is for sleeping in the same way that the sandbox is the place where you defecate? What the cat would answer is : what is good about sleeping in the same place?Cats have an internal clock that warns them from time to time that it is not good to be in the same place, it is a security measure that belongs to their most primal instincts: if you are in the same place, and you rest there, the most likely is that a larger predator comes along and hunts you down. That’s why cats never sleep in the same place for a long time, even if they have their favorite corners.
His wish is to sleep in the heights
The secret for a place to be to their liking is that it is elevated, sleeping on the ground is not their favorite place because they feel vulnerable. Precisely, the elevated locations give them security both to see possible predators and their prey. Cats may prefer to sleep on top of a piece of furniture, a shelf, a laundry basket, or a shelf.
Favorite places
Cats can decide that any place is good, although they develop dislike or love for the most unexpected corners. At ground level, they may really like something as simple as a cardboard box.
They love objects made of this material because they are dry, but rough and soft, it allows them to hear the outside well, and they are neither hot nor cold. In addition, they can also scratch it and see its “‘destruction’, something that marvels the cats.
Is sleeping with the cat in the same bed a good idea?
This question raises many paradoxes. Many cat owners love to sleep with them, but there are several studies that say that it is positive and others that it is negative. In favor: the heat and the breath of the animal appeals to our rest and allows us to fall asleep in a deeper and more efficient way.
Against: as the cat will not sleep for more than half an hour at a time, if we have fragile sleep it will wake us up every so often.
So… do I or do I not sleep with my cat?
The truth is that a pet in bed is always a complex situation to make flexible. Explanations are useless to the animal, it does not attend to exceptions, so if you sleep with your cat, the day you do not allow it, you will receive a series of meows, blows and perhaps scratches at the door of your room that will.
They will make you want to travel to the past and never have slept with him. In short, for the sake of both of you: maybe letting your cat sleep with you isn’t such a good idea.
Do they really need up to 16 hours a day to recharge their energy?
Domestic cats sleep much more than wild cats and therefore would not need to spend 16 hours a day sleeping. Sleeping on the one hand gives them a better quality of life and increases their longevity, but it really is an indicator of boredom. Animals, and specifically predators, when they have nothing to do prefer to rest and sleep, they are not like humans who always believe that we must do something.
Cats, like dogs, have an amazing facility for noddingand, in the same way, they are capable of waking up and running away like nothing happened. This way of sleeping is closely linked to their own energy savings that are implicit in their instinct, all animals have a spring that warns them that if there is nothing to do, it is best not to get tired in vain, that is why they sleep for so many hours .
