If you have a cat, you may have noticed that they seem to sleep most of the day. Even though the cat's sleeping behavior seems unusual to you, it is completely normal to cats.
Learn more about cats' natural sleeping patterns to get to know your cat better. Your cat may be more active in the early morning or evening, and may even wake you up from your sleep.
Just like people, cats have REM（rapid eye movement) sleep and non-REM sleep. REM sleep gets its name from the fact that it can be seen that their eyes are moving rapidly, which is the sleeping part of dreaming. When cats fall asleep for the first time, they go into non-REM sleep and easily woken up. After 10-30 minutes, they go into REM sleep which lasting about 10 minutes, and then they go back to non-REM sleep. They will switch between REM sleep and non-REM sleep until they wake up.
According to a study on the sleeping time of animals, adult cats sleep a total of 10-13 hours a day.Before about 6 weeks old, kittens need more sleep than adult cats. At 10 days old, all sleep of kittens is REM sleep, but by 28 days, this sleep time is reduced to about half. As the activity of kittens increases, non-REM sleep will take up more sleep time.
Many people report that their cats only stay in bed for a while at night, and 47% estimate that cats will stay in bed for half a night or less.The most common place for cats to sleep at night is the owner's bed (34%), 22% choose furniture, and 20% choose their own cat bed.
Cats belonging to the same social group usually choose to sleep close to each other. If your cat and your dog get along well, they may also sleep close. If you have multiple cats, they need their own beds, even if they choose to share.
Needless to say, you should provide your cat with their own bed, even if they often choose to spend time in your bed. Cats like hiding places, and they like to be high, so make sure they have a comfortable space to sleep at the top of the cat tree.
