Sleep: It's the Cat's Meow!

If you share living space with a cat, then you know how much these animals sleep, and how well they sleep! Nothing and nobody is more relaxed than a sleeping cat.

I've picked my orange cat up off the bed, and he has laid there limp in my arms while I carried him into the living room and put him in the easy chair. Then, after I've made my bed, I've picked him up, still limp, and carried him back to his spot on the bed.

Cats generally sleep from twelve to sixteen hours a day. About 3.2 hours of this is R.E.M. sleep. R.E.M. or rapid eye movement sleep is dreaming sleep. During this stage of sleep the brain is the most active. R.E.M. sleep may be a period of sorting out of the day's load of messages, disposing of the garbage and storing the important things to permanent memory.

We typically have 3 to 5 periods of REM sleep per night, occurring every hour or two. The length of R.E.M. sleep varies in different species. The platypus can claim the largest amount with seven to eight hours of R.E.M. sleep daily. The giraffe has only half an hour. Humans generally have an average of 1.9 hours of R.E.M. sleep nightly.

There may be a correlation between the amount of R.E.M. sleep and intelligence. However, this has not been proven, and the amounts vary so greatly across the board that it leaves much to be explained.

Meanwhile, through all our puzzling and pondering, the cat continues to sleep. Paws and whiskers quivering, tail twitching, as he chases dream mice across a shadowy landscape.

Sleep Disorders are Going to the Dogs

Dogs sleep ten or more hours a day. There is also a very good possibility that dogs do dream. Watch your pet as he sleeps on the rug. His ears may twitch. His nose, too. Sometimes his legs make running motions and his tail may wag. He emits little "woofs" or whimpers as he chases an imaginary rabbit or faces off against the Persian cat across the street.

Recent research at Stanford University proves that dogs also suffer from sleep disorders, and, in particular, narcolepsy. Researchers, led by Dr. Emmanuel Minot, have isolated the gene that causes narcolepsy in two breeds of dogs - Doberman pinschers and Labrador retrievers. However, it is believed that narcolepsy is a disorder common to many species. Narcolepsy isa a neurological disorder that causes an excessive need for sleep.

Anyone suffering from this disorder may fall asleep in the middle of any task, or even while holding a conversation.
Another sleep disorder common to both dogs and humans is sleep apnea. English bull dogs are mentioned as being especially susceptible, and this is understandable. With their thick necks, they do look like a perfect example of a sleep apnea victim.

One person mentions a dachshund that snores and appears to stop breathing in her sleep. This dog is overweight and very inactive.

So dogs share at least three sleep disorders with their human counterparts - dreaming (and therefore, possibly nightmares,) narcolepsy and sleep apnea. These disorders, it seems, are more universal than we once thought.