Do Cats Purr When They Sleep. Contrary to popular opinion, cats are more than capable of expressing their displeasure in a variety of ways.
Just like humans, cats dream about negative or positive things and it’s best not to let the purring fool you into thinking that your feline pal is feeling content or relaxed.
You may be in for a surprise if you quickly jump to conclusions, so without wasting any time here are some simplified results that have been determined after leaving many “details” out.
Do Cats Purr When They Sleep
Domestic cats purr for a number of reasons not just to express happiness or relaxation, as many people think. Cats may also purr when asleep because they are experiencing pleasant dreams or nightmares. If a feline is having a nightmare, she might purr aloud in order to share her distress with other animals in the vicinity.
Purring Sound
Cats are known for letting out a nice little purring sound whenever they see us or feel happy.
However, there is not just a simple reason behind why they purr. It’s typically produced from the cat’s larynx, which is also known as the voice box.
This can be found positioned in your feline’s neck and is surrounded by muscles that give them their voices. When cats purr, these muscles relax at a rate of 25 – 150 times every minute because of all their contentedness.
Low Purr
If a cat is emitting a low, resonating sound while sleeping, it’s purring. They like to do this when they feel safe and secure; when they’re in their “happy place.”
This is just one of the ways that cats communicate and they tend to take cues from humans as well.
If your furry little friend is wiggling around in their sleep, you can be pretty sure that he or she is dreaming about something good.
Distress
A cat who is in physical or psychological distress may purr while asleep even when they don’t feel safe or happy.
This can happen while they are sleeping on their side with legs stretched out, so a cat that seems particularly distressed during this position might be a good indicator of pain.
Cat Behavior
Sleeping beside your warm computer while you’re creating your next amazing app design might seem strange to most, but it’s just another of many habits that are actually quite endearing.
Cat behavior is more than just harmless. For example, a cat who parks in the corner of an office cubicle and vibrates slightly for attention could simply be doing so because they have nothing better to do at the time!
In fact, most felines are very interested in what we’re doing or feeling since they intuitively seem to understand our feelings when we’re around them. Cats are so helpful that they’ve essentially adopted us as part of their family long ago.
Dreamer Cat
Although your cat may appear to be content when they are purring in their sleep, there’s a more intriguing and complicated reason behind their behavior.
When we dream, we enter the rapid eye movement stage of sleep. Scientists still have many unresolved issues regarding sleep, and few of them understand why REM or dreaming is so crucial.
Final Words
As you have learned in this article, it is completely normal for cats to purr while they sleep. Often people hear a cat purring and think the cat is snoring. It can be difficult at times to distinguish one sound from another so we are going to focus on what makes a cat purr versus a cat snore. The bottom line is a cat purr means the animal is feeling safe and loved while a cat snore means your pet probably feels anxious or hungry.