Do Cats Have Nightmares? – Revealing the secrets of it.

The thought that do cats has nightmares might have struck you many times upon seeing your cat moving during sleep. It’s right that pets dream during their sleep and can even have nightmares; although we can only make a systematic guess of what they dream about. So if you also want to know that do cats have nightmares, what a cat nightmare is really about or what to do when your kitten having nightmare, read on as we solve the puzzle for you.

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Cats and their love for sleeping

We all are aware of the notorious love exhibited by cats for napping which is more intensive than any other pet’s love for sleeping. Spending time in deep sleep and curling up in their favorite cozy bed for a major part of the remaining day are their two preferable activities. Here are some interesting facts about sleeping cats:

Cats sleep as much as twice the humans do.
The average time spent by cats in sleeping can be 15 hours a day and this number can rise depending upon their day.
Kittens can sleep even more, up to 20 hours a day.
Aging cats can manage a 16-hour sleep in a day.

Cats have two sleep phases- REM and deep sleep. REM refers to the cycle when the cats are fast asleep while in deep sleep, the cat’s body rebuilds and repairs itself.

Cats and dreaming

The usual question in people’s heads before ‘can cats have nightmares’ is that ‘can the cats dream’. Well, of course, they can dream. The electrical stimulation of the cat’s brain happens quite similar to the human brain and thus their dreaming mechanism is very similar to ours. On that note, it can be said that a cat’s dreams can be any weird combination of real things plus imaginary images.
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It’s said that cats dream during their REM sleep cycle mostly. The brain of the cat stores information about the regular days and this info along with their memories hang on the sensory neurons and all of this finally gets realized in the dreams of the cat. They mostly dream about-

Past experiences and memories
Wishes and needs
Feline fantasies
Hunting expeditions or gaming activities

However, these are only our calculated guesses and you can understand the phenomenon better by understanding their curious and unpredictable nature. When you see muscle twitches, leg movements, a subtle change in facial expressions, or slight rolling in the sleeping cats, you can make out that they are dreaming.

Nightmares of a sleeping cat

If you ask us that ‘do cats have nightmares’, the answer is ‘why not’. Just like they can have dreams, nightmares are also a possibility. Cats have a great memory and they can recall the bad ones in their dreams anytime and that’s what we can call a cat nightmare. Now, obviously, your cat is not going to dream about worldly issues that are relevant to us humans, so what exactly can be a nightmare for them?

It is very natural for the felines to replay any bad event of their day in their dreams and the entire experience can turn out to be very bad too. As determined by a lot of cat experts, the dreams of cats are based on realistic experiences too and the same goes for their nightmares. Any kind of scary stuff can appear in the dreams of cats.

Since cats are capable of experiencing a wide array of negative feelings in different situations, it won’t be wrong to say that these emotional situations can re-appear in their dreams. Cats may re-create painful and frustrating events in their dreams like hunting failures, painful landings, falling mishaps, cruel fights, separation anxieties, and so many others.

You can understand the severity of the nightmare by the body movements they make while they sleep. They may also wake up in a frightened state and wide-open eyes. Making distraught sounds during sleep is another common thing that cats do while having a nightmare.

Here are some shrewd facts to support the positive answer to ‘do cats have nightmares’-

Rescued cats have been reported to have experienced more nightmares due to their troublesome past experiences.
A kitten having nightmare is more likely a chance than the adult cats as the REM phases occur more in the kittens.
Similarly, even the senior cats get more nightmares as compared to adult cats. This can be understood in the light of their poor health and painful sufferings that might find a way into their dreams too.

All in all, nightmares in cats aren’t a thing to be stressful about as they are just as common with them as they are to us.

Helping a cat having nightmares

Just like we tend to make uncontrolled movements during our nightmares, the same is the case with cats. You will mostly come across a cat making weird movements and sassing during a nightmarish dream.

Now in such cases, it is better that you don’t wake them up because that’s certainly going to have bad repercussions for you like the cat ending up to scratch, bite, or do something even worse to you. This is because their stimuli aren’t sensibly active during the initial moments of waking up from a dream and they might simply resort to the defensive instincts.

Here are some things you can do in the situation of a cat or kitten having nightmare:

Call out the name of your cat in a very soothing voice when you suspect them having a nightmare. The sound can re-assure them of being home and having you near them which can comfort their turbulent emotions.
When they are awake from the dream and recognize you properly, put your hands near their nose as your scent gives them the homely feels. You can also rub your scent into their blankets to keep them comfy during the sleep.
For the adopted or rescued cats, give them enough space to recover from their past experiences and not try treating them forcefully.
Don’t try to pet them at any cost in their sleep, especially during their dreaming phase.
Constant love and care can help the cats become more oriented and have better sleeps.

Conclusion

So for the questions ‘do cats have nightmares’, it’s been established that they do get nightmares and these dreams are not necessarily random. Cats remember and organize their day in their dreams just like we humans tend to do and the bad experiences get incorporated too in them. So, don’t start panicking if you see your cat twitching or moving in sleep, it’s just a nightmare and it will pass.

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Take good care of your pet!

Luna Tran

My name is Luna and I am a great cat lover and a cat owner of three lovely cats. I have owned many cats till now and have dedicated many years to nurturing and caring cats. Through this blog, I am here to share my knowledge and experience about cats.