You're quite close--the average sleep time for a housecat is 16 hours a day, not 18. Your cats may very well be sleeping exactly as long as you said.

"The expression cat nap refers to the light sleeping pattern of most cats, most of the time. About three quarters of a cat's sleeping time is light sleep. The cat can awaken very quickly, and to an observer it looks like they are not fully asleep. Their eyelids may even be slightly open. Again this is genetically related and governed by evolution. A cat that can awaken quickly can more easily escape from predators or fight with possible intruders. The remaining 25 per cent of a cat's sleeping pattern is deep sleep. This is where they do their dreaming. Their paws and faces may twitch during this type of sleep.

Why do they need all that sleep?

Most wild cats use huge amounts of energy when they hunt and they need to conserve energy in between their hunting activity. When a cat (or any living thing for that matter) sleeps, it uses very little energy. The longer a cat sleeps, the more energy it conserves and the less often it has to hunt. Although today's domestic cats don't really need to hunt, their genes are still the same as before we took them into our homes as pets." -- http://www.pets.ca/pettips/tips-49.htm
Source(s):
http://www.pets.ca/pettips/tips-49.htm


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