Do non-human animals dream?

[bienville]

Do non-human animals dream like we (humans) do?

For example?

[jjimm]

My cat occasionally makes running motions with her legs when asleep, and “talks” in her sleep. I presume this is dreaming, though of course I’ll never know for sure.

[jovan]

You might find This article to be of interest:

Animals have complex dreams and are able to retain and recall long sequences of events while they are asleep, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers report for the first time in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Neuron.

(snip)

“No one knew for certain that animals dreamed the way we do, which can involve replaying events or at least components of events that occurred while we were awake,” said Matthew Wilson of MIT’s Center for Learning and Memory. “We looked at the firing patterns of a collection of individual cells to determine the content of rats’ dreams. We know that they are in fact dreaming and their dreams are connected to actual experiences.”

It should be noted, however, that not all animals enter REM sleep, and that not all animals that do have REM episodes show brain activity consistent with dreams.

[Desmostylus]

REM Sleep & Animals

Dreaming

Not all animals that experience REM sleep dream. Some think that perhaps only mammals seeming to be more advanced in thinking than others dream during REM sleep. However, dolphins, thought to be highly intelligent do not have any REM sleep whatsoever! Dreaming mammals besides humans include: cats, dogs, chimpanzees, horses, cows.

Observing REM Sleep in a Cat or Dog

Cats and dogs have dreaming periods usually about 15 minutes into their sleep. Their REM sleep is easy to observe. Simple indicators are movements under the eyelids, changes in breathing patterns, twitching of the ears or whiskers, or occasional spasms or jerks of the face. They may even make running motions with their paws. If someone placed food before a sleeping dog’s nose, the dog may even start chewing.

Observing REM Sleep in Other Animals

• Chimpanzees have howled during sleep.

• Elephants don’t change in posture when entering or exiting REM sleep. Therefore, it is often difficult to tell if they are in NonREM or REM sleep. It is hard to see the eye movements since their eyes are relatively small. However, some indicators of REM sleep in elephants, as well as other animals, are twitches, vocalizing and irregular breathing.

• Giraffes have about 20 min. of REM sleep each night in episodes of 1-6 minutes each. During this time, they lie down, heads resting over their bodies or on the ground. They with occasional twitches.

• Horses, which must lie down to experience REM sleep, sometimes move their legs while sleeping, and will even neigh in their sleep.

• Sheep, who often sleep in a “sphinx-like” position occasionally stretch out while sleeping. During this time, they experience many REM sleep-like if not REM-sleep indicators. During this time, they have eye movements and ears and legs occasionally twitch.

[Rayne_Man]

Our dog does all those things and he sometimes growls and barks in his sleep.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

…as opposed to human animals?
Anyway, my dog does appear to dream. Sometimes if I wake him, he will even be disoriented for a second or so, like he still thinks hes in the dream (-Admittedly, my dog is very strange, so YMMV).

[Lissa]

My dog actually has nightmares. (God only knows what they’re about-- maybe she’s dreaming we ran out of treats.) She whimpers pitifully. I usually wake her up, and pet her to let her know everything’s okay.

[Merijeek]

*Originally posted by Lissa *
**My dog actually has nightmares. (God only knows what they’re about-- maybe she’s dreaming we ran out of treats.) She whimpers pitifully. I usually wake her up, and pet her to let her know everything’s okay. **

I think most of we pet lovers do this.

Anyways, I’m sure I’m not the only person who has a pooch that wakes up and immediately gives a sleep bark…even though there’s absolutely no noise at all.

-Joe, zzzzzzzzzzz -woof!-

[Velma]

Can animals remember their dreams, and if so, can they distinguish between dream events and actual events? For example, if my dog dreams she went to the park and wakes up, does she think she did indeed just go to the park?

If animals can’t tell the difference, life must be pretty surreal for them. “I’m running at the park!, Bam, now suddenly I’m lying on the couch!”

[Duke_of_Rat]

IANA Animal (Always wanted to say that!!) but I echo the dog dream experiences as well. As for REM sleep, my dog appears to have REM periods, his eyes are visibly moving under the lids, sometimes his eyes are even open and rolled back in his head where only the whites are showing.

[Lobelia_Overhill]

I seem to remember seeing a TV programme where they were showing you these monkeys that were being trained to recognise certain things in photographs, by squeezing a metal bar, several of the monkeys fell asleep still clutching the bar and while they were asleep, every now and again they’d squeeze the bar, suggesting that they were seeing things (ie dreaming) while asleep