quirky
Sleeping with a Paw Over the Face
Blocking light & settling deeper into sleep
A curled cat that drapes a foreleg across its eyes is not being theatrical. The posture blocks light, shields the face, and signals that the cat has settled into properly relaxed sleep.
A sleeping cat with one paw folded over its eyes and nose is a familiar sight, and the explanation is largely practical. Cats sleep for a great deal of the day, much of it in daylight, and often in the brightest available spot because warmth matters more to them than darkness. Laying a foreleg across the eyes is a straightforward way of shading them, in exactly the way a person drapes an arm over their face on a sunny afternoon.
The posture also shields the face from disturbance. The muzzle, whiskers and ear openings are the cat's most sensitive sensory surfaces, and covering them dampens light draughts, insects and low-level noise. It is a way of turning down the incoming information so that sleep can deepen, and it fits with the fact that the position tends to appear during longer, deeper rests rather than the light dozing cats do when half on duty.
There is a thermal element as well. Cats lose and conserve heat partly through the thinly furred surfaces of the ears and face, and a tucked paw is part of the same conserving arrangement that produces the tightly curled sleeping ball in cold weather. A cat in a warm room will more often sleep stretched out and open; a cat that is cool draws everything in, tail wrapped, nose tucked under a foreleg.
For an owner, the useful information is what the posture says about security. A cat obscuring its own eyes has committed to not monitoring its surroundings, and cats only do that where they feel safe. In this respect it belongs with the other deep-relaxation postures — the exposed belly, the side sprawl, the loose curl — and it is a quiet compliment to the household.
It is also worth knowing what the posture is not. Grooming the face involves an entirely different, active movement: the cat licks a paw, sweeps it over the head and repeats. A cat holding a paw over its face while awake, or pawing repeatedly at one eye, is doing something different, and should be looked at rather than admired.
🐾 Most common in
Common in cats of all types, most often in those sleeping in bright rooms, on sunny windowsills or in cooler conditions. Cats that feel entirely secure in their homes adopt it more readily than nervous cats, which tend to sleep with the face uncovered.