Henry has nightmare’s every time he sleeps

[trudy1]

One of my 7 rescues, Henry, has what I call “catmears” every time he sleeps. . He was a rescue that just showed up about 6 years ago. He was feral and wanted love so bad we used to have to carry a squirt gun around because he would grab our legs and not let go! Much better now but his poor cat dreams

 

[FeebysOwner]

What do you mean by nightmares? Can you describe what he does?

 

[Meowmee]

He is so cute and looks very relaxed there. My cats have had dreams as well where they meow and twitch etc. I don’t know what they’re about obviously, but I assume it could be dreaming of chasing a mouse and stuff like that. They don’t seem to be nightmares to me. My dog used to have them too and she would bark in her dreams.

This link below says you could wake them up if you think they’re having a nightmare and comfort them. If you’re worried about it, you can take a video of it and show it to Dvm. just to make sure it’s not a possible health issue.


https://www.thewildest.com/cat-behavior/can-cats-have-nightmares#:~:text=While%20there%20isn't%20definitive,could%20suggest%20they%20are%20dreaming.

 

[trudy1]

What do you mean by nightmares? Can you describe what he does?

He whimpers and cries…almost sounds like he’s being hurt. No movement of feet as if he were chasing something

I always assumed it was because of his origin. He came from an abandoned barn/house across the road (as did several of our rescues) where the owners had a farm dog who killed cats. Also there were lots of male cats around.
At one point I’d had enough of kittens showing up under my window crying at night so asked the farmer if he was opposed to my tnr at the abandoned house. Ended up doing 15 …kept three.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Crying and whimpering would be destressing to me too - although the odds are it isn't reflective of an issue. Feeby didn't make noises, but fairly often once she was in a deep sleep her legs would twitch. I would generally pet her and she would stop. Maybe you can try doing that with your cat. I was probably disrupting her sleep and that is the only reason she stopped, and that could be the case for your cat too. But, if it does correlate with a bad dream, then at least you've interrupted it.

I found this article that I thought you might be interested in.
Cats Meowing in Sleep: Dream Talk or Cause for Concern? (animalreport.net)