We all know that feeling. Comfortably drifting into sleep and all of a sudden that sensation of falling, startling awake with the blood pumping in our ears and our heart pounding twenty to the dozen.

But can cats experience the same?

There is definitely a reason for asking as we have witnessed behaviour in Loki that we can only describe as hypnic jerks, sometimes several times a night, when he will sudden startle himself out of deep sleep and leap across the room from his sleeping place in an obvious state of shock and minor distress. It doesn't last long and with a little soothing he will soon settle himself back down for a snooze.

I have enquired with the vet about it as I have never seen anything like it in a cat, but I was wondering if anyone else had experienced anything like it with their cats.

TIA.

R.

My last cat was siamese and she would doze off on my lap then wake up startled and look around with big eyes and leap off of me (sort of like who are your and why are you holding me!). Then she would go get a nibble to eat and come back around jump back up settle down and the cycle would begin all over. It was pretty funny but I had her for a long time and got used to it.

Most cats that I've had, have had periods where they sometimes "twitch" in their sleep. I guess having a vivid dream. It's actually kind of cute when they do that. But that doesn't sound like what you are describing. There was a case detailed in "My Cat From Hell" a while back where there was a cat with a similar sleep disorder that was diagnosed with something-or-other. For that case, as I recall, the cat was prescribed some medicine and the owners had to take some precautions about suddenly waking the cat and such.

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The little monsters 3

I believe every cat I've ever had has experienced this at some point in their lives. They can dream just like us and I've had dreams of falling many, many times.

Have you checked him for a random flea?
Merlin had one a short while ago - Yes, just the one!
I managed to catch and kill it, but he still has these random moments when he will wake and fly across the room as if something has bitten him on the bum, or something. It's quite funny at times, but it did worry me to the point I have now Effipro treated him as well. He has never had a single flea until this one, so I'm hoping it is a 'one-off'... I went for Effipro, co it treats ticks as well, and we have hedgehogs in the area.