It is difficult for anyone to understand cat behavior, as their body language is beyond our perception. All we can do is laugh at their cuteness or feel good about the way of covering their eyes with their paws or tail while they are sleeping.
A cat usually sleeps for 15 or more hours a day.
As cats are also nocturnal, meaning they are active during the sunset most of the time. They are blessed to have their outstanding vision capable of finding and targeting prey in the dim light, usually during dusk and dawn.
Moreover, while hunting prey, cats invest a lot of strength. Since their digestion needs energy, they like to sleep comfortably by covering their eyes. In this article, we will know in-depth why they cover their eyes while sleeping.
Why Do Cats Cover Their Eyes When They Sleep?
When your cat is lying down with his head positioned upwards and slightly eyes closed, along with ears quavering, then your cat is partially asleep.
You can see your cat in a deep sleep with its eyes shut down fully and are comfortably positioning itself.
That is when you could find your cat covering his face with his paws or tail. Also, it is a sign of deep sleep. Let us find out the five best reasons why your cat covers their eyes when they sleep.
1. A Sense of Security
A Cat is a predator as well as prey. So they are geared to look for places where they can sleep peacefully with a sense of security. However, you could still find your cat curling up in the ray of sunlight right on the floor and notice that your pet is covering its eyes.
It is generally because the cat wants to assure themself while sleeping with covered eyes.
You will also observe a few cats taking a short sleep with their head inside a blanket on the bed or even covering their head inside some clothes. Through such body posture, a cat feels safe even though the remaining body is visible to everyone.
2. Cover the Sun
Cats are good at finding pleasant and comforting places to sleep. But they also have a body language, through which they can cover the rays of sunlight from reaching their eyes. They usually do it with their paws or tail to keep the sunlight away. This character is similar to humans as they give curtains.
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3. A relaxing aspect
Cats do have a lot of sleeping styles that they prefer to use to provide themselves with relaxation, and it even changes from cats to cats.
Some cats love to extend their front legs on top of their heads when sleeping on their back or belly. Also, few other cats fold their one or both paws over their face as this is a relaxing posture for them during their deep sleep.
4. Restore Warm
When a cat curls up like a circle, he can receive more warmth.
They usually do it when there is a blow in the wind, whether inside or outside. Pushing their feet inside them and covering a paw or their tail close to the face assist them in restoring warmth in their nose.
5. Tiresome to Move
The cat needs to retain their cleanliness all by themselves because their fur offers them a sense of security alongside body heat. It is, thus, a tiring job for the cats to keep their body groomed every time, primarily during the time of their sleeping process.
Furthermore, it happens during the tiresome journey of their grooming session using a paw. The cat falls to sleep. So, they leave work in between their sleep. On the long way, the cat continues to groom himself when he wakes up.
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What Does It Mean When Cats Cover Their Face When They Sleep?
Cats are beautiful animals. They have various instincts and body language that could be a mesmerizing factor. They can curl up in a ball to lie down in your bed, clothes, couch, or even on the floor.
But there is one more thing seeking our attention, cats covering their face when they are sleeping. They usually hide their face either with their paws or tails.
Cats covering their faces are a cute gesture for any cat lover. However, they usually do it to make their body feel warm and relaxing. On the other hand, there are various possible reasons why your cat covers his face while sleeping, as stated above.
So, let us find out some other reasons why your cat covering face while sleeping:
1. Increase body heat
When a cat is sleeping, its body loses more heat compared to relaxing. The excess heat gets released from the frontiers such as paws, ears, and nose tops. So, by covering their faces using their paws or bending closely just like a ball, they can increase their body heat.
2. Restricts Sunlight
During warm weather, you can already assume that your cat is restricting the path of sunlight to enter its face. The cats do so because the heat gets absorbed by them. Thus, they find it irritating at times.
3. Restrict disturbance
Another factor is that your cat covers their face when sleeping due to the loud sounds or disturbing noise passing to its ears. Thus, you could find your cat burying its head during sleep to restrict disturbance to his sleep.
4. Comfort
Comfort is another possible reason that makes your cat sleep covering its paws across its face. They do it because of comfort and to offer them a good sleep. However, it could be any position that your cat may choose to sleep for feeling comfortable and relaxing.
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Conclusion
A cat could also fall asleep during the oddest of times. However, with their cute sleeping position, it makes us feel happy. Thus we love to pamper them when they do so.
Also, a cat covering their eyes when they sleep gives an innocent insight into the cat and that as a cat lover, we feel them as great creatures.
It is possible for us to not always understand their body language as human beings. But we could always try a bit harder to understand them more closely when we spend time with them.
Hi There, AJ Oren here. I am the founder of this amazing pet blog & a passionate writer who loves helping pet owners to learn more about their pets through my articles. I am also the content manager of this blog. I have experience in pet training and behavior, sheltering, and currently working for a veterinary clinic.