Why do cats sleep for so long?

These lazy but extremely cute and playful creatures sleep for 2/3 of their lives (kittens and younger cats may sleep even longer than that), which is basically 16 hours a day. So now imagine a cat lived until it was 24 years old, that's 16 years of it's life spent purely on sleeping!!!! So there must be an explanation as to why.

Although I have never really fully owned a cat, I have come in contact with many and played with many, and you can never get bored of doing so because they're fun and fury, meaning even as they sleep you can get comfortable stroking a cat as it purrs loudly indicating its also enjoying the contact. I can also say that when cats jump onto my lap, they can be asleep within five minutes, whether I'm stroking it or not. Still extremely cute don't get me wrong.

The physiology behind it all

Firstly, although pet cats have been domesticated, the fact that they are natural predators that want to hunt is still hardwired into them, and nothing can really be done to teach them hunting is not necessary. Now for cats to be able to hunt, they will need to conserve energy, hence the reason why they sleep for so long, but this is not the only reason.

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Another reason for why these fluffy beings sleep so much could be affected by their diet. Now, most domestic cats will have diets full of protein, and protein requires a lot of time to digest, which is what the cats' digestive system will do for them as they sleep, so when they wake up they'll have enough energy to do what cats do.

Finally, cats are crepuscular, this means that they are mainly active during the twilight hours of dawn and dusk (when it starts to get dark to when it starts to get light). They tend to lay low in the darker night-time and day-time hours, when other 'predators' could be around . Some cats may be active at night as well, especially when they’re kittens.

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These aren't the definite answers for every cat, this is just a generalisation, but it's not to say that cats cannot adjust. for example, cats will adjust their sleeping schedule to fit in their feeding time. They will also adjust their sleep schedule to make it so they're awake when their loved ones are around, to ensure they can spend time with them and play with them. Proof of this is when I was sleeping over at my aunts house, and her cat would literally go say her goodbyes before my aunt left the house, then would sleep again, until my aunt came back to the house where her cat would go running to the door to greet her 'mum'.

Cats are incredibly smart animals, and they can even be taught to do tricks just like dogs, but they require more patience, and for the owner to understand their cat, as all cats are different, just like humans. They can even dream!! If you ever see your cat's whiskers or feet twitching whilst its asleep, it is probably dreaming.

Hope you steemians enjoyed x