Dreaming is your dog’s attempt at understanding the information being processed in the brain.Ĭhances are that your dog is also dreaming about you. Thus the twitching whiskers, the whimpering and the running paws that we commonly observe. Anything your dog does during the day is being processed while they sleep and relived in dreamtime. So just what are our furry friends dreaming about? Dinner? Playing Fetch? Walkies? A puppy will spend more time in dream sleep than an adult dog, probably due to the need to process new information. Dreaming occurs mainly during this REM phase of sleep. While the dreamer may appear quite active during this stage of sleep, they are very difficult to wake. During REM sleep, as the name suggest, the dreamer’s eyes move rapidly and randomly and their brain activity mirrors that of when awake. There are two main types of sleep - rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep. During sleep the brain also appears to process information and experiences gained during the day. We still do not know the reason that sleep is so important to animals but it appears to aid in growth and repair of our body systems. In other words, you don’t eat, smell or walk during your sleep. Sleep is a natural state characterised by reduced consciousness along with reduced or paused sensory and voluntary muscular activity.

To understand dreaming, it helps to understand the process of sleep. In fact it’s likely that all mammals dream. This indicated that rats were indeed dreaming.

They then compared their brain activity while asleep and discovered exactly the same. So scientists monitored the brains of rats while awake and performing tasks such as running around tracks for food. While we know that humans regularly dream during their sleep, for many years it was unclear if animals did. If you’ve ever watched your dog twitching, chattering or moving their paws while sleeping, you may have wondered if they are dreaming.

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