Cats and dreaming

[dougie_monty]

We used to watch our cats when they were asleep; sometimes they would make motions suggesting they were running (somnambulism). But we wondered: Was the cat dreaming that he/she was running? We couldn’t account for the body movements any other way.

[Grrr]

They have to be dreaming. I have a cat the meows in his sleep.

[dolphinboy]

How would we know? It sure looks like dreaming to us, but we have no way to know what the cat or dog is experiencing when they are asleep.

[Si_Amigo]

Why wouldn’t it be dreaming? Cat’s are smart enough to get a free ride and sleep 90% of the day. Surely they must be dreaming of ways to get even more out of us.

[bob_2]

You can be sure that some scientist will have studied this, and MIT is probably the most likely place: They did it on rats, but all animals have the same brain patterns.

In research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) rats have been shown to dream about previously running a maze (see also) and researchers have also discovered that they have complex dreams. To quote from an account of this research, the “rats were hooked up to a device that measured the pattern of neurons firing in the hippocampus, an area of the brain known to be involved in memory. The scientists had the rats perform specific tasks in a maze which produced very distinctive brain patterns. When they repeatedly saw almost exactly the same patterns reproduced during sleep, they concluded the rats were dreaming about running through the maze. The correlation was so great that scientists said they could place where in the maze the rat was dreaming it was — and even if it was dreaming of running or walking.”

Do Animals Dream? Science Shows Of Course They Do, Rats Too

[dougie_monty]

@bob_2

You can be sure that some scientist will have studied this, and MIT is probably the most likely place: They did it on rats, but all animals have the same brain patterns.
Do Animals Dream? Science Shows Of Course They Do, Rats Too | Psychology Today

Well, if rats can do it…

[Toastmaker]

@dolphinboy

How would we know? It sure looks like dreaming to us, but we have no way to know what the cat or dog is experiencing when they are asleep.

I think this is most likely true.

I’ve owned multiple cats most of my life and watched them a lot. The movements and twitching I see in their sleep look a lot like random, autonomous nerve activity. Caused by unconscious dreams ? - maybe, maybe not.

[GusNSpot]

Cat’s dream = yes

Dogs dream = yes

I would think that most mammals dream.

Sharks, not so much.

[Toastmaker]

How do you know this ? I know of no scientific proof that any animals have dreams, like humans do.

[Grrr]

@Toastmaker

How do you know this ? I know of no scientific proof that any animals have dreams, like humans do.

Here’s some good reading on the subect.

[QUOTE=Pet adiser]
Cats sleep roughly 16-18 hours a day. Like humans, they experience Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. The REM stage is where most dreaming occurs, although some does happen in the non-REM stage as well. The non-REM dreams are more fragmentary and less visual.

With kittens, such as the little guy in the video, the amount of “dream” or REM sleep will decrease as they mature. So will a lot of the muscle-twitching that goes along with it.

Feline dreams don’t differ all that much from ours, according to Matthew Wilson, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. They, too, dream about the stuff of their day-to-day lives — playing, stalking prey, etc.
[/QUOTE]

[dougie_monty]

@Shakes

Here’s some good reading on the subect.

And with Archie, it probably included musing on what to do about all those silly humans (and that dumb dog) living in his house, and how to get at those guppies in the tank on the mantelpiece.

[Doctor_Jackson]

@Toastmaker

How do you know this ? I know of no scientific proof that any animals have dreams, like humans do.

Also, see post #5

[dasmoocher]

Look out when a 1000 cats all have the same dream :eek:

[Der_Trihs]

They dream of stalking and pouncing. If you destroy the portion of the brain that paralyzes animals while they sleep, the animal will act out their dream; and that’s what cats do.

[John_DiFool]

My black lab loved to swim in our pool-I even taught him to swim underwater.

I’d often see him when asleep, his legs moving rhythmically in the slow cadence that he’d use when in the pool.

[Willcross]

@Der_Trihs

They dream of stalking and pouncing. If you destroy the portion of the brain that paralyzes animals while they sleep, the animal will act out their dream; and that’s what cats do.

That’s pretty interesting. Has this been done?

[Der_Trihs]

@Willcross

That’s pretty interesting. Has this been done?

Yes; googling got me this.

Jouvet found a brain area near a structure called the locus coeruleus that was necessary for muscle relaxation during REM sleep. When this area was surgically destroyed, the animals went to sleep normally, but during paradoxical or REM sleep they hissed and scratched violently, sometimes running around the cage with their eyes closed for a minute or two as if attacking another animal. Jouvet (1967) reported, “The sleeping animal’s behavior may even be so fierce as to make the experimenter recoil.” Evidently the cats were acting out dreams about their favorite daytime activity: hunting.

Note that humans who suffer similar brain damage for whatever reason have also been known to act out their dreams, sometimes dangerously. I recall the case of a woman throwing her children out the windows because she dreamed the house was on fire.

[Willcross]

@Der_Trihs

Yes; googling got me this.

Note that humans who suffer similar brain damage for whatever reason have also been known to act out their dreams, sometimes dangerously. I recall the case of a woman throwing her children out the windows because she dreamed the house was on fire.

Thanks! That’s really fascinating. I have the opposite problem, that area of the brain is often still active after I wake up, resulting in sleep paralysis.

[Freddy_the_Pig]

I wonder if rats ever dream that they’re being tested on running the maze, but they haven’t shown up to run the maze all semester.

[dougie_monty]

@Freddy_the_Pig

I wonder if rats ever dream that they’re being tested on running the maze, but they haven’t shown up to run the maze all semester.

Maybe they’re on to you.