Are cats Crepuscular? The short answer is: Yes, cats are crepuscular. This means they are most active in the hours just before the sun goes down in the evenings, and just after the sun peaks over the horizon in the morning.
It’s not unusual to hear cats participating in a house demolition project during the twilight hours. These furry felines are not behaving this way because they are trying to keep you up – although it may feel like it sometimes…the ornery little buggers! It is actually a result of millions of years of evolution. Feral cats love to snack on rodents,snakes, and other small creatures that take advantage of the cooler temperatures and lower visibility that occurs at night. The historic crepuscular cats that had the most energy during the twilight hours had an easier time hunting, as their prey was away from cover and on the move. This hunting advantage increased the odds of survival for the crepuscular cats, allowing them to pass on their genes.
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While it may spark the imagination to envision these beautiful creatures stalking prey during the most beautiful hours of the day, it’s important to note that cats are not strictly crepuscular. House cats are very flexible with their sleep schedules and will often change their activity patterns to match that of their owners. That being said, with most people going to 9-5 jobs, it still works out well for house cats to snooze during the day. With their owners gone it makes a lot of sense for the crepuscular cats to sleep all day as there is not as much stimulation for them with their owners out of the house.Big cats could also be considered nocturnal as they will move about and hunt for most of the night. The twilight hours are short in number, so many crepuscular animals also move about during other times of the day. These other times often concentrate around the few hours before and after the official crepuscular hours. Luckily for cats, they spend most of their day sleeping! So they do not have to stray to far from their crepuscular twilight dwelling ways!
If your little feline friend is keeping you up at night, you have a couple of options. The easiest of which is to just simply ignore your cat. If you cat is looking for attention, it may double its efforts to get attention for awhile. Eventually, it will adapt to the new conditions and let you sleep.
Other options include playing with your crepuscular cat before bed, tiring them out before you are ready for bed will make them less energetic when you are ready to sleep.
Another option that I have seen is to drape your windows in heavy curtains, making it harder for your cat to know what time it is. To me this seems clumsy and impractical. Most homes would not be particularly accommodating to this strategy. I also think that it would actually make me sleepier than the cat! I will mention it briefly though as other seem to have had some success with it.
Are you interested in other crepuscular animals? check out Are Deer Crepuscular?