Mary Allen
Do you know the saying “sleep like a child?” If you have small children, you know that this saying is a pure hoax, they do not sleep! No, “sleep like a dog” should be instead. But do they dream like us, and if so, what?
On average, a dog sleeps 12-17 hours a day, significantly more than we humans. And we have all heard how they gnaw inside their lips, sputter their paws, and maybe wag their tails or even growl in their sleep. Surely they must dream, right? Yes, of course, they do! For a long time, research has shown that the brains of dogs and humans function very similarly during sleep.
With the help of EEG, the dogs’ eye movements have been studied during the so-called REM sleep, as both, we and dogs sleep very deeply. How our eyes move and muscles twitch during that type of sleep is the same when it comes to dogs and humans. So we seem to dream in a similar way.
Small Dogs Have Shorter Dreams Than Large Ones
Dogs usually enter their dream period about 20 minutes after falling asleep. However, how long they dream and with what intensity varies depending on the dog’s age and size. Studies have shown that small dogs, such as the chihuahua and dachshund, tend to have shorter and more frequent dreams than large breeds, such as the Rottweiler and the Grand Dane.
The big races dream about once an hour and the dreams last for up to ten minutes. Not surprisingly, puppies dream more than adult dogs. Just like in children, the young dog absorbs information and impressions that need to be processed during sleep.
What Are They Dreaming About?
But what do they dream of then? From experience from ourselves, that should be what happened during the day; chase sticks in the park, bark at the neighbor, or maybe the wonderful dream – scare a cat in a tree. To relive the taste of an extra good meal or to bury a bone in the yard, so that the other dogs in the family do not find it, is probably also close at hand to think that they are dreaming sweetly. At least it seems so when you study the movements that the dog has made in his sleep when they both dig and lick their mouths.
Do Not Wake the Dog If It Has Nightmares
So give your dog great dreams tonight! But if it seems like it’s dreaming of something nasty, avoid waking it up! Partly because you interrupt the important sleep and the processing of the event, but also because the dog can be confused when it wakes up. Maybe it can even try to bite if it is in the middle of a dream that is perceived as completely real. You know the feeling yourself, right? Do something calm and pleasant with it when it wakes up by itself instead.