How much do cats sleep? This is a question that anyone that has ever owned a cat can answer. While they may not be able to give you an exact number of hours, they will tell you that cats sleep a lot. In hours, the answer to this question is 13 to 16 hours a day. This means that your cat will spend more than 2/3 of its life asleep; of course, the time spent asleep will vary from one cat to another.
Some of the things that will affect the number of hours your cat sleeps are its age; they sleep more as kittens, and as they become older. The health of your cat can have an effect on how much they sleep, there is a thyroid condition a cat can have that will cause it to sleep less. The cat’s diet and personality can also have a bearing on how much the cat sleeps.
The reason that a cat sleeps so much stems back to the behavior of their wild ancestors. As any cat owner will tell you, a cat is far less domesticated than people think; they still have a lot wild left in them. Your house cat is a crepuscular creature just like most of its wild cousins. This means that cats are most active at dawn and dusk. This is because prey animals are also active at these times. Wild cats hunt at these particular times and then sleep most of day, and your cat is doing the same thing.
When your cat is sleeping, they are just doing what nature has designed them to do; they are just being a cat. You should see slight changes in sleeping habits as the seasons change, this in no cause for alarm. Your cat is just adjusting to the change in the amount of daylight. Keep an eye on your cat though, if it begins to sleep more or less than usual this could be a sign of medical issues and you will need to take it to your veterinarian.
