Few other mammals can boast that they spend up to two-thirds of their lives napping, placing the cat among the top sleepers among mammals. Cats differ from one another in terms of how much time they spend sleeping, of course. Age, hunger, environment temperature, and weather are just a few factors that may have an impact on how much time is spent sleeping. The comfort of the resting environment is influenced by several of these aspects, and hence, the less comfortable the surroundings, the less time the cat will likely spend sleeping. A cat has Rapid Eyes Movement(R.E.M) cycles, just like a person does. The cat's body will be paralyzed by its brain during periods of R.E.M, which is also connected to dreaming, to prevent it from "acting out" the dreams. Cats will lie stretched out or curled up while they sleep during REM periods. A cat that is curled up in the "sphinx" position, however, cannot be dreaming because its muscles are supporting it.

Another behavior of cats has to do with their "crepuscular" sleeping patterns.The fact that cats appear to be awake whenever their owners wake up in the morning leads manycat owners to believe incorrectly that cats are nocturnal creatures. Cats, on the other hand, spend the majority of their time napping at night and in the middle of the day. The reason is that in the wild, cats that are the ancestors of housecats spend much of their time hunting at dawn and dusk, when small prey like rodents are active. Because domestic cats still follow their ancestors' sleeping patterns, they are most active between the time the sun rises and sets.

Sadly, cats that do become nocturnal tend to have a third bad behavior. This can sometimes happen for numerous reasons, but fortunately the pet owner can undo it. For instance, if a cat is waking up in expectation of being fed, and waking up its owner to accomplish the feeding, the owner can subvert the habit by never feeding a cat immediately upon being roused by it. Parents will be able to relate to this idea from sleep training babies because the association will no longer be reinforced. The cat will typically fall back to sleep if not fed.

The fourth sleeping behaviour of cats that people generally refer to is "cat naps." A cat in the wild would have been more likely to be caught by a predator if it slept for an excessive amount of time since its senses would not have alerted it to the predator's proximity.

The location where they choose to sleep is thefinal cat habit. Cats prefer ideal environments to curl up in, as was previously mentioned. The temperature is a key factor that cats consider when choosing a spot to sleep. Cats will look for shade in the heatand warmth in the cold, such as the light from a window or close to a heater. Cats sometimes like to sleep next to their owners.

This accomplishes both their desire for a cozy temperature and their desire to interact with their owners.