What Do Dogs Dream About When They Sleep?

It’s not known with scientific certainty if dogs dream, but it’s hard to think that they don’t. We’ve all seen our dogs act in similar ways while they sleep as they do when they are up. Our dogs’ paddling legs, snarling, wagging tails, gnawing jowls, and twitching noses make us worry about their dreams.

Do Dogs Dream?

Dreams are not exclusive to humans. In reality, according to scientists, the majority of vertebrates—possibly even the lowly fruit fly—can and frequently do dream.

Dogs and other animals have multiple phases of sleep, just as humans. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is preceded by awake and non-REM sleep is after that. The most memorable and vivid dreams occur during REM sleep, which is thought to be a mechanism by which the body processes memory among other things. Using sophisticated tools, scientists can monitor these cycles and the corresponding brain activity.

Lab rats were used in one of the most well-known of these dream investigations. These rodents spend the entire day circling a maze. Researchers observed the rats’ brain activity while they navigated the labyrinth and contrasted it with the activity that occurred while the animals were dreaming. They discovered that the identical regions in the rats’ brains lighted up, indicating that the rats were probably dreaming of the maze. By comparing the data, the researchers were able to determine precisely where in the maze the rats had dreamt themselves.

The researchers deduced from this that animals often dream similarly to humans. The rats thought about their day in the same way that you may dream that you are back at work, even if you would have rather to be somewhere more fascinating. Animals can remember and replay lengthy sequences of events as they sleep, according to MIT researchers who discovered that they have intricate dreams.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, dogs sleep for around half of the day. Even longer stretches of time can be spent sleeping in puppies, senior dogs, and larger breeds.

What is known about dreams and dogs

Despite the fact that we know very little about this subject, the material listed below supports our belief that dogs do dream. According to MIT News, a graduate student in 2001, and Matthew Wilson, an MIT professor of neuroscience, have investigated the connections between memory, sleep, and dreams. They discovered that rats’ brains developed a specific pattern of neuronal firing when trained to run around a circular track in exchange for food incentives (brain cells). While the rats were sleeping, the researchers once again monitored the animals’ brain activity. Surprise, surprise—whether the rats were awake or asleep, they saw the same distinctive brain activity pattern linked to running. The memories actually ran roughly at the same speed while the rats were sleeping as they did while they were awake.

What we’ve essentially discovered is that dogs dream of other dogs. According to the researchers, “the dream pattern in dogs appears to be extremely similar to the dream pattern in people.

Can we apply this to dogs?

Can we apply what we already know about dreaming in people and rats to dogs? Wilson is optimistic that we can. According to the website of USA Today, he stated, “My guess is that cats and dogs are doing exactly the same thing, unless there is something exceptional about rats and people.”

It is well known that all mammals have a hippocampus, a region of the brain that gathers and stores memories. Professor Wilson reportedly stated that “if you compare a hippocampus in a rat to a dog; in a cat to a human, they have all the same components” according to healthday.com. He thinks that just like when people dream, dogs to review prior experiences in their thoughts when they fall asleep.

The National Institutes of Health state that in adults, it is well known that REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is when most dreams take place. Dogs also go through REM sleep phases. According to the website for Psychology Today, people’s breathing changes and gets shallower during REM. During REM, muscles may twitch, and if one looks attentively, one can frequently see rapid eye movements hidden beneath closed eyelids. Legs paddling, twitching, vocalizing, and other actions assumed to be indicative of dreaming are most frequently seen during REM sleep.

Does the Breed of a Dog Influence Dreams?

The frequency and content of dreams varies amongst people, and according to studies, the same is true for dogs. According to Coren, little dogs dream more frequently than giant dogs, but their dreams are also shorter in duration. On the other hand, large dogs have fewer but longer dreams.

We can also speculate that your dog’s dreams are influenced by what he does throughout the day. While we can’t say for sure yet, the fact that Dobermans protect and Pointers point suggests that breed-specific behaviors may also occur while dreaming. For example, your Labrador Retriever is more likely than a Pug to dream of chasing tennis balls.