# Do dogs and humans have different sleep stages?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-and-humans-have-different-sleep-stages/355711>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 6, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-and-humans-have-different-sleep-stages/355711 "2006-05-06T23:30:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-and-humans-have-different-sleep-stages/355711/1 "2006-05-06T23:30:15Z")

</div>

My husband and I love to watch our dogs sleep because inevitably they start dreaming (or the dog equivalent) and their bodies “act out” the dream. Their feet will do little walking motions, their nose whiskers flick and move, their lips quiver…sometimes even a low, muffled bark will come out.

But as far as I know, when Humans are in deep REM sleep (which I believe is the dream part, no?) they don’t move like this. People do walk or talk in their sleep, but I believe that’s considered an anomaly, and yet almost all dogs do it.

Is it a sleep thing? A self preservation thing (dogs sleeping lighter to escape quicker)? Or what?