Do Cats Know When You’re Sleeping?


Do Cats Know When You're Sleeping?

Cats have a different sleep-wake cycle than other animals. Mostly, they are busy at nighttime. 

Cats have often probably been waking their owner at night. So it means, they do not know about our sleep? Do cats understand when we’re sleeping? 

Yes, Cats understand when we’re sleeping, at least, they clearly understand that they need to make more of an effort to get us moving during these periods of inactivity. 

However, it’s possible that you’re wondering if cats respect human sleeping hours. Do cats care about your sleep?

Let’s take a look at what you can learn from them in this article.

Do Cats Know Their Human’s Daily Routine?

Yes, they do. Cats are creatures of habit who thrive in a structured environment. They can most certainly appreciate a good routine.

If we pay close attention to our cat’s routine, we will see that they most likely do the same things as humans do every day.

They’re routines will develop around our schedule and our household routines. They are super smart. They keep a note of when things usually happen.

Mine my little girl know my routine

My cats know when I will arrive home and wait at the door. It’s common for my cat to be waiting for me at the door, since she knows exactly what time to expect me.

She also predicts things that happen before like, she always waits for me in the kitchen around midnight, while she always gets a snack at midnight.

In short, while cats may not completely understand what we are doing, they can memorize patterns of our activity at the same time every day.

Do Cats Understand When You’re Sleeping?

Yes of course, they understand that we are sleeping. Even though they do not understand the concept of sleep at all, they clearly know that something is different. 

It’s hard to tell what they’re thinking, but there are a few additional things to consider.

They do have an understanding of time based on a regular schedule that humans usually do.​ While we’re all moving about during the day, and silent at night.

It’s part of a larger picture of sleep as part of our daily routine and how it affects our activities.

Cats clearly understand that we go through a period of reduced responsiveness and it will take much more effort to get our attention.

Again, yes cats can tell when you’re asleep. Whether they respect your sleep is a different matter.

Do Cats Care About Your Sleep?

I cannot safely say all cats out there, but cat care about our sleep is dependent on the individual felines. 

Sometimes cats get impatient with our sleeping sessions. They just settle down with us to see if we want to wake up.  

No matter how eager they are for breakfast, they just wait until we get aware and feed them.

But some cats are selfish, if they want something. They will get it. Even when we are sleeping or awake.  They begin crying at 4 or 5 am and jump on our heads until we wake up. 

Instead, if we get up to feed them when they try to wake us up then we’ve simply rewarded that behavior. It means we are creating a bad habit, and they will continue to wake us up at the time

Final Thought: 

Do cats know when we’re sleeping? Yes, it is clear for them to know about our activity every night. 

While they’re not fully understand the concept of sleep like us, they know we don’t respond to them during this time. 

However, whether they care about our sleep or not, it depends on their individuality.

Cats are like our small children when they are bored or energy will prompt them to try to wake us up!

Daney Hak

I’m a passionate cat mom and pet lover. Apart from being a cat owner, I’ve spent many years of my childhood around them. In my experience, I’ve learned the importance of understanding your cat to be able to cater to them adequately. Thank you so much for your time.

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