Why do cats sleep ? The reason why cats sleep a lot is the effects of their time as a wild hunter, not as a pet.
Why do cats sleep so much ?
To answer this, it's important to know when most cats are most active: dawn and dusk. these features make them crepuscular animals.
What does crepuscular mean ?
Unlike nocturnal (night) or diurnal (daytime) creatures, the term defining creatures that are active in the morning and evening twilight hours.
For example, although cats are thought to be nocturnal, they are actually crepuscular creatures and hunt in the morning and evening twilight hours in nature. in cities they do this by scavenging at dusk. Even those who live in the house wake up at dawn, have breakfast, go to the sand, drink water, and lie down after sleeping soundly. it is possible to watch the same behaviors in the evening hours.
According to Sands, this is because cats have evolved to hunt in low light over millions of years, and their eyesight is adapted to activity at twilight.
In cats' eyes, the tapetum layer, located behind their retinas, works like a mirror that reflects back so that it can once again process and interpret the light reflected in their eyes. This is why felines' eyes look like glowing orbs at night, and they see better at night.
Before cats were domesticated, they had to expend a great deal of energy during twilight hunting periods, finding, chasing and killing their prey. For this, it must preserve its energies.
Although house cats do not hunt for dinner, their natural hunting instincts encourage them to conserve energy for sunrise and twilight, which is why they sleep so much.
There is some evidence to suggest that humans can change the sleeping habits of cats.
In the experiment carried out at the University of Messina in Italy by attaching a monitoring device to 10 domestic cats, half of the cats were placed in a large house and allowed to roam freely in the garden. the other half was placed in a small house and they were only allowed to walk around the house.
It has been determined that the cats in the small house adapt to the sleep periods of their owners and spend the time awake when their owners interact with them frequently.
If you complain that your cat is very active at night and does not sleep you, it means that you cannot spare enough time for your cat during the day. Your cat, whom you leave alone during the day for reasons such as work, spends this time sleeping and feeds the hunting instincts that make it run around the house at night, jumping on your bed and on you.