Do Cats Dream?

Being a new cat owner, I'm often amazed and entertained by the antics of our feline, Chloe.  Recently I observed her sound asleep on a chair and to my astonishment realized she was actually dreaming.

Chloe is a feral rescue and her comfort level around us continues to grow.  She's now able to sleep soundly when people are in the room despite a TV blaring and other distractions.

Last night as she slept, I saw her twitch, her whiskers flutter and paws lurch.   It dawned on me then that she was in such a deep sleep she must have been dreaming.  I did a quick internet search to see if cats really can, and it seems they do.

From LoveMeow.com:

Cats do dream. There is scientific evidence that cat’s brain can formulate dreams during sleep. In humans, there are 5 stages of sleep where the fifth stage, AKA REM (rapid eye movement) is where dreams occur. Similarly, cats have 2 types of sleep – REM and non-REM (deep sleep). Cats usually stay in REM sleep for about 30 percent of their sleeping time. The brain wave patterns displayed by a sleeping cat are comparable to that in humans. However, humans only spend about 20 percent of our sleep time in REM stage except for human babies that have 80 percent of their sleep in REM.

The photo above was taken of Chloe as she was coming out of that deep sleep.

[lovemeow.com]