![]() REM sleep is the period of sleep where the body is most relaxed (indeed almost paralysed) but the brain is most active, almost on par with activity whilst awake. As mentioned above, most dreaming takes place during rapid eye movement, or REM sleep. We define dreams as any images, sensations, thoughts or emotions that occur whilst asleep. So you now know that both humans and animals have dreams! Everyone has them, everyone knows what they are, but have you ever tried to describe what a dream actually is? You might be surprised to find that scientists aren’t really sure what dreams are either and they’re definitely not sure what they are for. Anecdotally, sometimes animals seem to be more distressed while dreaming than others, which would fit with the human presentation of having a nightmare, so it seems reasonable they would. And nightmares? Well, as you have probably guessed, since we don’t know what animals dream about, we can’t know if the dream was about a nice tasty steak, or a big terrifying hoover. It’s hard to know how much animals remember from their waking hours, so remembering dreams is an even bigger mystery to us. What about remembering a dream? We can sometimes remember our dreams after we wake up, so do animals remember as well? This too, we do not know. Perhaps they imagine chasing squirrels in the park, catching a ball or eating something tasty they shouldn’t! But we may never definitively know what animals dream about… You can probably take a good guess at what your dog is dreaming about based on how they act while they are apparently dreaming – some dogs will paddle their feet, make noises or even walk around a little while dreaming. A similar study showed birds could sing songs while in REM sleep, showing perhaps they were dreaming about ‘practising’ their preferred tunes. The researchers concluded that sleeping animals likely dream about activities they would perform during waking hours, which is in common with what people dream about. There have been studies performed that allowed sleeping cats to move during REM sleep (normal REM sleep mostly paralyses the muscles), and they started to move about and act aggressively, like they were hunting. As for what he could be dreaming about, that is just as mysterious as what a sleeping person might be dreaming about. This means your dog twitching when he’s asleep could very well be him dreaming. ![]() We know this because these animals have a phase of sleeping called REM sleep (more on this later) which is the time when most dreaming takes place. So to help answer the title’s question: yes, dogs do dream! In fact all mammals, some birds and perhaps even reptiles dream as well. ![]() You may be aware that when you dream, you often twitch, make involuntary movements or even talk! No doubt many partners have complained about it in the morning! But have you ever noticed that your dog twitches when he is asleep? Is he dreaming too? Well in today’s article, we will try to tackle the mysterious world of animal dreams. From newborn babies to senior citizens, everybody dreams. No matter how strange the world seems to get, nothing seems to beat the weirdness that is night-time dreaming.
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