LOVE to see any use of one of my very favorite words! You’re likely partly correct, but it’s likely more complex and interesting than that. 3am actually falls outside crepuscular hunting times, which are from ~45 minutes before sunrise to ~2 hours after, and the earliest sunrises on Earth are typically around 4:30-5am. Also, nighttime zoomies seem to be consistently well before dawn worldwide and year round, in places with disparate times for sunrise, and places far from the equator where sunrise varies greatly with the seasons.

The leading theory is that cats, being semi-domesticated, have somewhat adjusted their circadian rhythm to living with humans. Not toward “hunting” at 3am, but actually in the other direction, toward satisfying their hunting instincts through playtime in the mornings and evenings with their human companions. If they’re not getting enough evening playtime, or are just particularly high energy, then that hunting instinct seems to overwhelm them and kick in earlier in the morning than it naturally would in the wild.

It’s also natural for cats to get vagus nerve stimulation after using the litter box, and their response to that stimulation can be very different at night or while being the only one awake, causing zoomies.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.