I have wondered what dogs dream about. Are they chasing squirrels, the FedEx driver, or the neighborhood cats? Whatever they dream about, it is certainly entertaining to watch!
According to the American Kennel Club, dogs usually sleep around 12-14 hours a day. In adult dogs, Rapid Eye Movement or REM sleep (think dreaming) only accounts for about 10% of their sleep.
In my household, everything stops when we hear one of our dogs dreaming. We love to watch and wonder what they are dreaming about. Sometimes they growl, bark, act like they are running and chasing something. This makes sense because these are activities in their everyday lives in the real world. Likely, they really are dreaming about those activities, similar to how we dream about them too. Science has some data to indicate this idea too.
MIT researchers in the Center for Learning and Memory used rats to test their hypothesis. In 2001, they wanted to find out what rats dreamt about, so they ran an experiment.
By studying the rats’ brain activity while running a circular track, they used a series of work-and-rewards to help the rats navigate the track. Part of the study was to take a look at the rats’ brain waves as they were sleeping. While the rats were in REM sleep, surprising data showed that about 50% of the same neurons were firing.
This study was the first of its kind to actually show that humans are not the only mammals to have dreams about the real world and the complex experiences of life. Human dreams sometimes serve the purpose of forming long-term memories of how to do something, or how to navigate this life, as well as how to do it again.
This was part of the hypothesis of the study and they had the data to show that complex, memory-forming dreams are had by more animals than we thought. I remember as a young child, after swimming lessons, I practiced how to swim by dreaming about it that night. So, if I did it, why couldn’t rats (or other animals) work on a problem they are trying to solve in their dreams too?
The crucial part of the anatomy that prevents humans and dogs from acting out what we are doing while we dream is called the pons. It is part of the brain stem in mammals, old and young. It connects the cerebellum and the medulla oblongata, but it does not work so well in humans and dogs.
Starting in the 1970’s, researchers wanted to see what pets were dreaming, so they destroyed the pons in cats and observed them when they were asleep. By limiting the pon’s function, researchers have achieved insight into what activities dogs act out in their sleep.
Psychologist, Christopher D. Frith states, “During dreams, at least, it is likely that animals form mental representations and have conscious experiences very similar to those of humans.”
Having a good REM cycle and sleep is associated with better health, so it stands to reason, that this would be the case for dogs, just like in humans. This study from 2016 looked at dogs in a shelter who got more sleep were ultimately healthier and happy go lucky.
Think about how one feels when someone wakes them up mid-snooze… It is best for everyone involved to let sleeping dogs lie. It is a win-win because giggles happen at the funny noises and faces they make, and they get to live a healthier life because they got more sleep.