Cats love their snooze time — in fact, they nap 12 to 16 hours a day. After analyzing hundreds of videos of sleeping cats, researchers found that two out of three cats prefer to sleep on their left side. The question is … why?

When cats sleep on their left side, they see their surroundings with their left visual field when they wake up. This information is then sent to the right hemisphere of their brain, which is best at spatial awareness. This includes analyzing possible threats and coordinating quick escape actions, which could help cats in hunting and evading predators.

So, instead of being a mere fancy, the feline tendency for left-sided sleeping may actually be a survival tactic.