why do cats and dogs need to sleep so much compared to humans?
In: Biology
So is my dog anal because he sleeps all day?
Cats and dogs are crepuscular, meaning they are most active before sunrise and after sunset. The rest of the time they rest. Humans are diurnal, meaning they are active during the day.
If you had no work and had to stay in your house for eternity. I’m thinking you would take naps?
Most predators follow a general pattern of hang around, get hungry, hunt something down, eat, hang around more. Outside of feeding and breeding they don’t have a lot of reason to expend energy.
Despite the folklore of cavemen killing a big beast for a feast, humans, like most primates, were mostly foragers. And unlike other primates, humans evolved to be nomadic, with a very efficient bipedal gait. So humans evolved to wake up with the sun, walk around all day looking for food, and sleep at night.
Dogs mostly follow this pattern as they spent a few tens of thousands of years domesticating themselves and following human patterns was beneficial for those animals that wanted to follow the human tribe.
They are both descended from wild predators. They expand energy fast catching their pray and then rest. Their food is calorie dense.
Cats and dogs don’t necessarily need to sleep as much as they do. They just don’t have anything to do for a large parts of the day so they go to sleep. Doing so is advantageous because it preserves calories. This isn’t useful in modern times when animals are often overfed but a lot of domesticated animal behaviors predate domestication.
A person who only sleeps 7 to 8 hours a day may look at a dog or a cat and think it’s strange that they sleep so much but the normal human sleep cycle is not ideal. There’s a reason why a lot of cultures take naps or even have them built into their society, they’re good for you. They get you off your feet, allow you to be more productive during your waking hours because you weren’t always walking around half dead.
Cats and dogs sleep longer, but not as deeply as humans do since that sleeping pattern is rewarded in the wild.
I’ve heard their brains keep one hemisphere “awake” at a time while sleeping and alternate periodically. I haven’t confirmed that bit though.
Humans also need a lot of sleep, but we override this and over-extend ourselves more than other animals.
This is why humans have incredibly high rates of anxiety, stress, disease, and worry.
We should take a leaf out of their book and spend much more time relaxing too.
Because they get too tired watching and dealing with our shits on a daily basis.
That’s hard and tiring to do.
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