Fun With Sleep

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replying the story in its archived form does not constitute a re-publiccation of the story.

Sleeping is good. Sleeping in is better. Sleeping all day after waking Roommate up well before her alarm goes off is the best thing in the world!

I guess I'm just mean.

Have you ever wondered why your cat sleeps so much? Cats sleep on average, 13 to 16 hours per day- only bats and opossums sleep more than us! Contrary to popular belief, cats are NOT nocturnal. We're crepuscular- most active at dawn and dusk. Many many years ago, our feline ancestors were most active at dawn and dusk because that's when our prey came out to play. The middle of the day was too hot to chase dinner and nighttime is just too dark. Voila- dawn and dusk!

Another contributing factor to our sleepiness is our diets- unlike large herbivores who get their nutrition from grazing ALL DAY, we eat small protein-packed meals that leave plenty of time for naps.