Did a cat or a kitten dream? - briefly
Both cats and kittens experience dreams during their sleep, as evidenced by their REM (rapid eye movement) sleep patterns and occasional twitching or movements.
Did a cat or a kitten dream? - in detail
Cats and kittens, like many mammals, experience sleep cycles that include both REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM sleep. During REM sleep, which is associated with dreaming in humans, cats exhibit similar physiological signs, such as twitching whiskers, moving paws, or making soft noises. These behaviors suggest that cats and kittens likely dream. Research on animal sleep patterns indicates that the brain activity of cats during REM sleep resembles that of humans when they dream. Kittens, in particular, spend a significant portion of their sleep in REM sleep, which is crucial for their brain development and learning. This increased REM activity in kittens may imply that they dream more frequently than adult cats, possibly processing their experiences and new information. While we cannot definitively know the content of their dreams, the evidence strongly supports the idea that both cats and kittens do dream, with kittens potentially engaging in more vivid or frequent dreaming due to their developmental needs.