How Long Do Kittens Sleep (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 22 hours (Approx)

“What is little is beautiful.” Isn’t this saying correct? A little baby woos everyone’s mind, no matter if it is of human or cats. Kittens are the babies of cats (Juvenile cat) and they have been stealing everyone’s heart since forever. Their big bright eyes, those little toes and their small little pink nose are indeed a treat to everyone’s eye. People call themselves cat lovers for a reason.

It is said that when kittens are born, they are born ‘deaf and blind’. For the initial 20-25 days they are dependent on their mothers (for colostrum i.e milk) or caretakers for all the necessary works and needs.From the time they are being born, they have a whole new unique and systematic mechanism to grow into a big cat. At the time of birth, a healthy kitten weighs around 3-4 ounces. According to the facts, the eyes of a kitten take 14-15 days to open up and the ear canal takes roughly takes 10-14 days to open up after the birth. This statement proves to the fact that they are born deaf and blind.

How Long Do Kittens Sleep?

Sleep is one of the most important factor that helps in regulation of body. It is said that when an individual ia asleep, his/her body undergoes replenishment and repairing that is the body undergoes rejuvenation during a sleep. Getting right amount of sleep at right times helps individual grow and flourish really well both physically and mentally. Same is the case with the kittens. Most people say that their little cat sleeps all day and they say it right. Kittens require more and more amount of sleep to grow in a healthy way. Following points tell the time duration of kitten’s sleep at various points of their growing stage.

1. A new born kitten needs to sleep almost all the time that is for 22 hours.
2. A two month kitten sleep for around 18 hours a day.
3. A four to six months kitten sleeps for 16-20 hours.

As the kitten grows and matures, its sleep duration starts to decrease. Upon reaching the old age, they become weak and start to energy real fast. So, they again sleep for a long time to fulfil their energy requirements.

Why Do Kittens Sleep For So Long?

One of the most important reason why kittens sleep so much is for the act of conservation of energy. Energy is required to perform all the living functions, so that makes it immensely important to conserve energy. Kittens do so by sleeping all day. Also an interesting reason is that the cat/kitten has a biological predator instinct which it inherits from its ancestors. So, no matter if the kitten is well fed but it still have that “hunting instinct” inside it which makes it to save more and more energy to go to hunt the next time, hence they sleep more to save energy.

Also, cat/kitten are crepuscular (animals who are active in the twilight). That’s why it spends nearly all day sleeping and is active only in the evenings and early mornings.

Conclusion

Every living organisms is designed in a unique way. Each of us need some basic requirements to live life in a healthy way. One such basic need is sleep. Since we know that all the animals are different in terms of their needs such as food, habitat, living environment, the same goes for their sleeping patterns as well. Different animals have different sleeping schedules.

Many new kitten owners get anxiety as to why their kitten so much all day and all night.? It is because it is made in such a way. Cats/kittens belong to the family of tigers ( Family – Felidae) . That means, they are the cousins of the tigers. They are predators by nature. They sleep to conserve energy in order to go for next hunt.

Hence, it is absolutely normal for your little kitten to sleep for so long. [22 hours]. But, if it is excessively lazy all the time and is never playful, she may need to see a vet.

Reference

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165380696001319
2. https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article-abstract/1/4/393/2749530