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by wickedwillie on January 29th, 2004
Lions -and all cats, actually- spend very much time at sleeping, simply because they can. Why? Well, their special anatomy and physiology shows their organism is used to acting in abrupt impulses. A hunter doesn't need endurance and self-control, but intensive work in short period of time and distance. According to this, cats get great satisfaction during rest and respites.
In a whole, cat sleeps sixteen hours a day. Only the opossum and the bat sleep more – napping away almost 20 hours a day. But sleeping or staying awake, a cat continuously receives information from the environment. The brain of a cat when it is in profound sleep is equally active as during periods it is awake. The brain stays on the lookout to percept an alarm that comes through the sense organs. Watch your cat while he’s napping. His ears rotate as he stays in touch with his environment, and if he hears a noise or senses that someone is approaching, he will open his eyes to assess the situation before falling back to sleep. If you try to wake a sleeping cat, he can transform from deeply sleeping cat to one that’s fully alert in a matter of seconds – and then back again.
Other than that, the cat’s natural diet may also play an important role in its sleeping patterns. Large grazing herbivores must graze for hours to supply their bodies with enough food. But the protein-rich diet of the cat does not require such an investment of time, and allows him plenty of time for napping.
So there you have it: cats sleep so much, because they can...
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Comments
Interesting (and correct).
by kanjalid on April 1st, 2005
they just sleep because they're worthless bums :)
by dmoneythegreat on December 15th, 2005
Great answer. Because they can. (laugh)
by ommnif on January 8th, 2006
If only we had that much time for lion around.
by Shabba on March 9th, 2006