Ever Wondered If Dogs Dream?

Have you ever watched your dog while they’re sleeping?

There are certain behaviors that resemble things they might do while they’re awake such as whining, twitching noses, paddling legs and wagging tails.

“According to MIT News, Matthew Wilson, a professor of neuroscience at MIT, and Kenway Louie, a graduate student in 2001,  have studied the relationships between memory, sleep and dreams. They found that when rats were trained to run along a circular track for food rewards, their brains created a distinctive firing pattern of neurons (brain cells). The researchers repeated the brain monitoring while the rats were sleeping. Low and behold, they observed the same signature brain activity pattern associated with running whether the rats were awake or asleep. In fact, the memories played at approximately the same speed during sleep as when the rats were awake” – Pet Health Network

Most human dreams occur in REM sleep. Dogs also experience REM sleep during which their breathing usually becomes irregular and shallow. Muscle twitching is normal during this time and if you look closely at your dog while he is in REM sleep, you will see rapid eye movements behind his eye lids. This is when normal awake behaviors can be observed such as whining, twitching and leg movement.

What do you think your dog dreams about? Comment on our post!