I’m sure this is a question asked and pondered by all cat owners.
We’ve all looked at our cats while they’re asleep and wondered if they are dreaming or not.
If cats do dream then do they have nightmares?
Do they have nice dreams or really weird dreams that make no sense?
You’ve probably seen your cat’s paws twitching while your cat is asleep. You may have seen your cat’s legs moving too. You may even have seen rapid eye movement and this all points towards a dreaming cat.
Findings
Research into this subject has been conducted but the source for the studies will probably surprise you.
Rats were observed in labs to assess their sleeping patterns and the researchers concluded that rats do in fact dream.
They believe that the rats dream about tasks that they’ve carried out, puzzles that they’ve solved, and possibly sounds that they’ve heard.
They may even have bad dreams.
It has been assumed that cats dream too as well as most other mammals.
The findings show that the electrical patterns in a rat’s brain during certain stages of sleep are similar to those patterns when the rat is awake.
What are cats dreaming about?
Based on the research done on rats it’s fair to assume that cats dream about daily life.
Running, hunting, playing, eating, and problem-solving most likely are part of a cat’s dreams.
It is thought that cat’s dreams share similarities to the way that we dream.
If we think about how our dreams pan out but then apply the daily life of a cat, we should get a good idea of the typical feline dream.
My Thoughts
We live with a male black cat called Coco. He loves to sleep with us all night on our bed.
He also loves to sleep on our laps and next to us wherever we are.
He even follows us into the garage when we are exercising and climbs up to sleep on top of the roof of the car!
I have seen Coco twitching in his sleep many times.
If he falls into a deep enough sleep when he’s on my lap, he’ll start twitching and sometimes he even makes noises.
Recently his legs, paws, and tail started twitching quite a lot as if he was running.
He then started chattering and I could see his teeth as his mouth was rapidly opening and closing.
I’ve always known that when dogs do this, they’re most likely dreaming so I just assumed Coco was dreaming too.
My assumptions appear to be correct.
Sometimes I can feel Coco twitching near my feet when I’m in bed. I always smile to myself and hope that he’s having a nice dream…
Lee Harris
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