When Do Cats Sleep? Are They Really Nocturnal? – 1699971997

You might catch your cat napping frequently throughout the day, and their play sessions might wake you up at night, too! But cats aren’t nocturnal. They’re crepuscular—most active at dusk and dawn, in other words. They’re also polyphasic sleepers, which means they take plenty of naps in between those times.

“Dawn and dusk are when birds and mice are very active, so cats adapt their hunting patterns to their prey,” says Stephen Quandt, cat behavioral specialist and founder of Cat Behavior Help.

Cats have a reputation for sleeping a lot, especially during the day (to fuel their late-night zoomies, of course). But according to Quandt, healthy cats who get plenty of daytime enrichment shouldn’t stay up all night.

Want your cat’s sleep patterns to line up with your own schedule? Quandt doesn’t recommend disturbing their daily naps—but he does offer some alternate methods to help your crepuscular cat sleep through the night. Read on to discover more about your cat’s waking and sleeping patterns.