Original photo by Tetiana Yablokova/ Shutterstock
Humans tend to adore cats despite some of their more difficult tendencies, which include sprawling across laptops and books, delivering (unwanted) gifts of mice, and begging for a food refill before their bowl is even empty. Not to mention keeping their pet parents up all night with loud yowls and frenzied midnight runs. But who can blame a house cat for the mischief they get up to in the wee hours? After all, cats sleep around 15 hours per day, so it makes sense that their bedtime routines don’t align with ours. However, cats don’t bank all those hours of rest at once. While sleep habits can vary by breed, domesticated cats generally take frequent catnaps lasting 15 to 30 minutes each, followed by bursts of activity, and then occasional periods of deeper rest.
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It's a factFor humans, sleep is just as vital to survival as food and water, allowing our bodies to rest, heal, and retain information. It’s why we doze so frequently and for so long. Banking seven to eight hours each night adds up quickly; about one-third of our lifespan is spent snoozing.
Feline researchers believe cats’ unique sleeping patterns evolved from their need to store energy between hunts. Prowling for and pouncing on prey is a major energy drain, and resting after hunting and eating allows cats to prepare for their next pursuit. However, cats have developed different styles of sleeping to still be aware of the world around them during their daytime naps. Catnapping felines remain partially awake, can still move their ears and tails, and even keep their eyes partially open to detect danger. When they do doze more deeply, cats experience REM sleep just like humans — one reason scientists believe they dream like us, too.
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Cats are ______ animals, meaning they’re most active at dawn and dusk.
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Cats are crepuscular animals, meaning they’re most active at dawn and dusk.
Koalas sleep the most of any animal.
Cats may spend most of their days lounging around, but another mammal holds the record for sleepiest animal: koalas. These pouched tree-dwellers snooze between 20 and 22 hours per day, waking at night to feast primarily on eucalyptus leaves. While toxic to other animals, eucalyptus is the koala’s primary food source, and it’s tough to digest; the leaves are especially fibrous and are light in nutrients. That means koalas require extra rest just to power the digestion process. However, active koalas can use that banked energy to really move around; when spooked, the marsupials can run at speeds up to 18 miles per hour.
Nicole Garner Meeker is a writer and editor based in St. Louis. Her history, nature, and food stories have also appeared at Mental Floss and Better Report.
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