An adult cat sleeps on average twelve to sixteen hours a day, and some kittens or older cats exceed twenty hours. Compared to an entire life, a cat spends almost two thirds of its existence sleeping.
A Hunter's Sleep
This river sleep is a predatory heritage. Hunting — even reduced today to a toy — requires brief and intense expenditures of energy; in between, the body recovers. The cat is most active at dawn and dusk, the times of its natural prey, and dozes the rest of the time.
The majority of this time is light sleep: moving ears, instant awakening. The deep phases, where the cat dreams — whiskers and paws twitching — last only a few minutes at a time.
When to worry?
Sleep time varies with age, season and household activity. It's not the nap that should alert you, but a sudden change in rhythm: a cat that suddenly sleeps a lot more - or can no longer settle down - deserves veterinary advice.
