No one doubts that your cat is an adorable creature. Even if he throws things at you, scratches your furniture, or scratches you, there are probably times when he’s so cute that you don’t hate him.
But beyond all that, there’s an important melon to open: they’re incredibly lazy. Not because they don’t help with the dishes or other household chores, but because they spend most of the day sleeping.
Indeed, as reported ScienceFocus, most domestic felines can sleep between 10 and 13 hours a day (50 to 110 minutes at a time), and it is not uncommon for a cat to sleep up to 17 hours. It is not uncommon for a cat to sleep until 5 p.m.
Most domesticated felines can sleep between 10 and 13 hours a day.
You may wonder why they have to sleep so much (which is normal). To understand this, you need to know that most cats are very active at dawn and dusk. This is a characteristic that makes them twilight (rather than nocturnal) animals, much like animals such as ferrets, hamsters, and stray dogs. Indeed, over millions of years, cats evolved to become low-light predators, with their eyesight specifically adapted to twilight activity.
All cats have a tapetum, a mirror located on the back of each retina. In addition to making their eyes look scary in the dark, this adaptation gives cats a second chance to interpret incoming light, allowing them to see better in dark environments. As cats are crepuscular, they conserve their energy for these twilight hunting periods. Before they were domesticated, cats had to expend a large amount of energy at these times to find, pursue, and kill their prey. Although domestic cats no longer hunt until dinner time, their natural hunting instinct still prompts them to conserve their energy for dawn and dusk.
Although domestic cats no longer hunt until dinner time, their natural hunting instinct still encourages them to conserve their energy for dawn and dusk.
Interestingly, some data suggests that humans can impact the time their cats sleep. In particular, a study from the Italian University of Messina made it possible to better understand this problem after placing tracers on 10 domestic felines: half of the cats were left free in a large house and a garden, while the The other half was only allowed to roam around a smaller house and was kept indoors at night.
It turned out that the cats in the tiny house somehow mirrored their owners’ sleeping habits and were more likely to be awake at times when their owners frequently interacted with them. In other words, if forced, your cat might enjoy spending time with you. This is a real feat.
No one doubts that your cat is an adorable creature. Even if he throws things at you, scratches your furniture, or scratches you, there will probably be times when he’s so cute that you won’t hate him. But beyond all that, there’s an important melon to open: they’re incredibly lazy. Not because they don’t help with the dishes or other household chores, but because they spend most of the day sleeping.
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