![]() ![]() There are ways that you can encourage your cat to follow more of a diurnal or crepuscular routine, though. Your cat may sleep more during the day and spend more time playing at night, which fulfills the “hunt, catch, kill” part of their rhythm. If they hear a noise, they’ll be fully awake in no time.Ĭats tend to have a natural rhythm that goes something like this: Your cat might look like they’re fast asleep, but in fact, they’re often just dozing. The typical cat sleep cycle lasts for 15-30 minutes, which is where our term for a short sleep, a “cat nap,” comes from. Your domestic house cat might not need to hunt for their dinner every night, but they still have the instinct to conserve their energy and sleep a large part of the day away. Once they woke up, they had the energy to stalk, chase, and kill their prey. ![]() In the wild, cats evolved to sleep frequently in order to conserve energy when they weren’t hunting. The reason that they sleep so much is another evolutionary throwback. Some cats will even sleep for 20 hours out of every 24. Cats sleep more than many other animals, and on average, they will sleep for roughly 15 hours per day. Yes! You might have noticed that your cat sleeps frequently during the day, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that it means they’re super active at night. Their whiskers are extremely sensitive, so they can navigate their way around obstacles. They can find their way around with ease, while we stumble into things.Ĭats also possess incredible hearing, helping them locate their prey from the smallest sound. Consider how well adapted a cat’s eyes are to seeing in low-light conditions than our human eyes, meaning they can see far better than us in low-light conditions. Even if your cat doesn’t need to hunt their food anymore, those ingrained habits haven’t gone anywhere.Ī cat’s anatomy is far better adapted to night-time activities too. Therefore, it makes sense that many house cats’ natural rhythms coincide with when their prey is likely to be most active. Dusk and dawn are prime times for small prey animals to make the most of the safety that low-light conditions offer them in terms of not being seen while also having enough light so they can still see. Many species that cats would naturally predate, like rodents, feed from dusk until dawn. House cats still retain their hunting instincts from their wild ancestors, and this in turn, also influences the times of day that they’re most active. All cat breeds can trace their ancestry back to those original cats. It’s thought that the African Wildcat, or Felis silvestris lybica, was the first domesticated feline. Image Credit: mohamed_hassan, Pixabay Why Are House Cats More Active at Night, Dawn, & Dusk?Īs sweet and cuddly as our house cats sometimes seem, there’s no denying that they’re descended from wild animals. For these animals, their most active periods coincide with sunrise and sunset. The majority of house cats will tend to display behavior that’s more accurately described as crepuscular, rather than nocturnal. ![]()
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