More evidence that cats can sleep anywhere at any time.

April 11, 2013 6:01 AM

Cat sleeps on its head. [slyt]
posted by quin (41 comments total)

That's because it's a Japanese cat.

Japan's on the other side of the world, you know.
posted by goethean at 6:18 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I've got a cat in the US that sleeps this way about 50% of the time. We've always figured it's because he spent so much time in a cage before we brought him home.
posted by Runes at 6:20 AM on April 11, 2013

We're not really sure that cat even HAS a head, are we?
posted by HuronBob at 6:26 AM on April 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

I can see an ear, so I think it must have a head. Probably.

I have a cat sleeping on my shins at the moment. Guess that means I'll have to call out from work with a case of feline paralysis.
posted by rtha at 6:28 AM on April 11, 2013 [13 favorites]

I'm an expert on cats, and I'd just like to verify for everyone that that's a kitty.
posted by dmd at 6:34 AM on April 11, 2013 [37 favorites]

I peer-reviewed dmd's research and I endorse his findings.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 6:35 AM on April 11, 2013 [11 favorites]

As a cat-owned person I did not need evidence of this.
Nor secret ninja spew.
Nor, oops I missed the litter.
Nor, I got you a gift and left it underfoot.
posted by Mezentian at 6:36 AM on April 11, 2013

My parents had a cat who used to sleep like that when he was stressed. When he was a kitten he would sleep in a (then very roomy!) napkin basket on the dining room table, and when he got big and was stressed he'd go find his kitten sleep spot and sleep in the napkin basket, and that pose was the only way he could fit his head in -- head and back legs and tail in the basket, everything else up in the air. Eventually the napkin box fell to pieces and went in the trash but he would still sleep in that pose (frequently in the middle of the table where the napkin basket USED to be) when he got stressed. He always looked like an ostrich trying to deny the reality of, like, the vacuum cleaner or visiting relatives.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:39 AM on April 11, 2013 [30 favorites]

I like the part where the cat sleeps on its head.
posted by iamkimiam at 6:40 AM on April 11, 2013 [14 favorites]

I can vouch that DMD is a published, peer-reviewed expert on kitties and that his hypothesis seems correct. That is most likely, in fact, a kitty.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 6:41 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

In my experience, cat sleeps on my head.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:42 AM on April 11, 2013 [14 favorites]

I'm an expert on cats, and I'd just like to verify for everyone that that's a kitty.

Let's recap: Who's a kitty?
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:46 AM on April 11, 2013 [5 favorites]

That is indeed a kitty. I can tell from some of the pixels and from seeing quite a few kitties in my time.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:47 AM on April 11, 2013 [7 favorites]

What I like about dmd's kitty-theory is its explanatory power.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 6:47 AM on April 11, 2013 [7 favorites]

I have a dissenting view which is published in my peer-reviewed journal: A Study of In-Situ Furry Objects.

Nothing suss.
posted by Mezentian at 6:53 AM on April 11, 2013

This is one of the strangest videos I've seen in some time. I have no idea how the poster got this cat to sleep on its head, or why.
posted by Going To Maine at 7:00 AM on April 11, 2013

How else do you block light out when sleeping in a bright room? (Most) cats can't order sleeping masks from Amazon.
posted by DU at 7:01 AM on April 11, 2013

See also.
posted by maryr at 7:05 AM on April 11, 2013 [4 favorites]

Consider that in vitro evidence, including proof that the phenomenon is reversible.
posted by maryr at 7:07 AM on April 11, 2013

I know more about this subject than you can possibly imagine, and I can tell you with near-certainty (P<0.001) that the subject is a kitty exhibiting autocraniosomnolence.
posted by Mister_A at 7:15 AM on April 11, 2013 [5 favorites]

Since there are several noted feline authorities, I would like to ask a question in all seriousness. What kind of kitty is that? Is that a cute little kitty? Does the kitty say "meow"? "Meow, meow!" Yes, you are a cute little kitty!
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:23 AM on April 11, 2013 [6 favorites]

gingerbeer has been out of town for a few days, and so we've been talking in the evenings over FaceTime. We conducted an experiment in which I would show my phone to the cats while gingerbeer talked to them (she would say hello, and also MEOW MEOW).

Results: Yorvit would go back to sleep; Roswell sniffed the phone and then freaked out and hid under the coffee table.

Conclusion: cats are weird.
posted by rtha at 8:07 AM on April 11, 2013

Evidence of feline paralysis, from a few nights ago (it is a chronic if intermittent condition).

He who paralyzes.
posted by rtha at 8:17 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

What I like about dmd's kitty-theory is its explanatory power.

But is it falsifiable? Is there an argument which could prove it was not a kitty?
posted by ennui.bz at 8:29 AM on April 11, 2013

I believe the test you are looking for falls under the broad heading of 'string theory':

Dangle a string next to it; if it reacts, it's a kitty, if not, it's a lump of blanket.
posted by quin at 8:32 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I've definitely had hangovers that felt like this.
posted by fight or flight at 8:56 AM on April 11, 2013

I think I look something like that when I try and sleep on airplanes.
posted by colfax at 9:01 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I think it's a tribble.
posted by Man-Thing at 9:13 AM on April 11, 2013

Recently on an airplane the businessman next to me let me know that he was about to take a sleeping pill and then he would be out, unresponsive and did I need to go to the bathroom before he fell asleep? Half hour later he was leaning forward, unconscious, with his face plastered mouth agape, completely forward, on the tv screen/seatback in front of him. I fortunately did not need to get out, but he was so tall that if I did, I could have probably crawled through the triangle he made under his chin and above his knees. It was such an impressively awkward way to dream I kept staring in awe at the magnificent feat of unconsciousness. Admittedly, I was also a little jealous.
posted by iamkimiam at 9:17 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I just slept that way on the Empire Builder from Minneapolis to Chicago, but it was considerably less cute.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:45 AM on April 11, 2013

I'm having trouble parsing that cat. I honestly can't figure out where all the legs are. It freaks me out a bit.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:39 AM on April 11, 2013

Wait, somebody named his cat "Gorilla" ?　「 ゴリラ」
posted by mule98J at 11:25 AM on April 11, 2013

Japan's on the other side of the world, you know.

Japanese cats have a more refined sense of aesthetics.
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:41 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Issues on which Metafilter is suprisingly close to a consensus: 1. This is a kitty. 2. Rotisserie chickens are good.
posted by nonane at 12:37 PM on April 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

Is the kitty really sleeping on its head or is it just fancy camera work?
posted by Atreides at 12:50 PM on April 11, 2013

Is the kitty really sleeping on its head or is it just fancy camera work?

That would seem to imply that the kitty's head is glued to the wall and/or ceiling. In which case it would take much fancier camera work to make it look like it's not freaking the fuck out.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 2:04 PM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Cat sleeps on face, on a patio ledge.
Cat sleeps on a radiator (on her face).
Cat sleeps on a Japanese automated train ticket turnstile.
Binks the cat's unusual sleeping style.
A cat sleeps face down in his food bowl. The family freaks out.
posted by plokent at 2:10 PM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

Issues on which Metafilter is suprisingly close to a consensus: 1. This is a kitty. 2. Rotisserie chickens are good.

The excellence of Mr Rogers is the only issue on which we have true consensus.
posted by flaterik at 5:08 PM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

That foodbowl cat is not a kitty. That's a (sleepy) teddybear.
posted by talitha_kumi at 4:53 AM on April 12, 2013

I don't think Patio Ledge Cat is asleep. I think he's horribly afraid of heights.
posted by maryr at 8:17 AM on April 12, 2013

rtha, you are intermittently incatacipated. It happens.
posted by Athanassiel at 6:12 PM on April 13, 2013 [2 favorites]