Domestic cats do this because they are not nocturnal (awake at night) diurnal (awake during the day) but crepuscular – most active at dusk and dawn. Crepuscular comes from the Latin word for twilight, crepusculum. Their hunting instincts kick in at these odd hours leading to those annoyingly familiar 4am crazies. And also to us cat owners being woken for food at the most ungodly hour of the morning – usually just as the sun is about to rise.
Some more useless information.
- There are subdivisions of diurnal animals – matutinal animals are most active in the morning, while vespertine animals are most active in the afternoon.
- Animals who sleep during cold months hibernate, while animals who sleep during hot and very dry weather estivate. This is known as hibernation and estivation
There is a sunglasses range in Sweden called Crepuscular. Apparently it is due to the colours at that time of the day/night.
I am a vespertine animal and I estivate!
I am most active during the evening and night (like an owl) so tend to go to bed early hours of the morning and get up mid-afternoon. Now that I have blackout curtains I can sleep as late as I like so tend to be active from around 16:00 until 07:00 (although I do get up early on a Wednesday because my laundry time is 10:00-12:00 so I get up, get my laundry done and then go back to bed afterwards).