# How come you can tell when dogs are dreaming, but not cats? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 4, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080 "2020-04-04T22:40:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/1 "2020-04-04T22:40:48Z")
Piper Dog was snoozing and suddenly his paws, tail and muzzle started twitching. I’ve always thought that’s a sign of a dog having a dream. But then I I realized that I’ve never seen any of the Piper cats do that. How come? Do they not dream? Are they such aristrocats that even asleep they don’t do something as vulgar as those common dogs, who just don’t keep their emotions under control? Any thoughts? (Or dreams?) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/2 "2020-04-04T23:12:32Z")
Cats do it all the time. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/3 "2020-04-04T23:15:06Z")
Yep, cats dream too, and do the twitching in their sleep. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/4 "2020-04-04T23:21:43Z")
Hah! My cat just did it whole I was reading this. She mewed a little, too. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/5 "2020-04-04T23:23:58Z")
One of my cats sleeps on my lap and she definitely twitches and runs in her sleep. The other one crawls up on top of me and sleeps there, and she dreams out loud, too. I guess the question is why are the Piper cats holding out on you? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/6 "2020-04-04T23:24:42Z")
> [@galen\_ubal](#): > > Yep, cats dream too, and do the twitching in their sleep. Every cat I’ve had has done this, too. Typically, it’s the feet and the tail twitching. Sometimes, they’ll curl their lips, twitch their whiskers, or make little mewing noises, too. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/7 "2020-04-04T23:24:51Z")
My cats did it. They’d chatter in their sleep, as if they were seeing birds in their dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/8 "2020-04-04T23:26:52Z")
When my cats dream, they go limp, twitch, and chatter. Usually their jaw will hang open and their eyes might be partially open, but the third eyelid is fully closed. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/9 "2020-04-05T00:45:45Z")
[Lots of YouTube videos](https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=cat+dreaming), of course. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/10 "2020-04-05T01:02:47Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > But then I I realized that I’ve never seen any of the Piper cats do that. They’re just silently waiting for _you_ to fall asleep. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/11 "2020-04-05T01:11:37Z")
I’m a cat, and I do it. Well, maybe not the tail part. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/12 "2020-04-05T02:26:55Z")
Okay, the obvious follow-on question: Do humans twitch, move their paws, or mew or growl when they dream? We know humans dream. We’ve been told that humans have some mechanisms that disconnect the motor nerves from the brain while we sleep, so we don’t act out our dreams. We’ve been told that this can happen while we’re still partly awake, being the cause of “sleep paralysis” episodes that happen to some people. We also note that some people talk in their sleep or even sleepwalk (which may entail activity even more elaborate than just walking). Why is this not more common in people? Why don’t dogs and cats get up and sleepwalk? Are we all talking about basically the same phenomenon here? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/13 "2020-04-05T02:47:20Z")
Humans do twitch during hypnagogic jerks or rapid-eye-movement sleep. If you are talking in your sleep, jumping out of bed, flailing, and so on that is considered a [sleep disorder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REM_behavior_disorder). (Maybe not sleep talking.) There is actually a whole [list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasomnia) of scary parasomnias like sleep walking, sleep eating, sleep sex, sleep paralysis, exploding head syndrome, …, and of course REM sleep behavior disorder, which is associated with a lack of normal sleep paralysis which should keep you from thrashing around and acting out your dreams. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/14 "2020-04-05T02:48:55Z")
Perhaps dogs dream about doing active, exciting things, but cats just dream about quietly sitting around eating your corpse? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/15 "2020-04-05T02:51:30Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Perhaps dogs dream about doing active, exciting things, but cats just dream about quietly sitting around eating your corpse? First you have to make it a corpse. That’s the exciting part. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/16 "2020-04-05T03:25:30Z")
Oh, I can almost always tell when my Maggie is dreaming. She “talks” in her sleep, and sometimes she’ll just jerk awake and look around all startled like, “what happened?” Like she was having a nightmare. Poor kitty. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/17 "2020-04-05T04:16:34Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > sleep walking, sleep eating, sleep sex, sleep paralysis, **exploding head syndrome** , … Wait just a minute, WTF? Exploding head syndrome? That seems like it would be a one time thing. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/18 "2020-04-05T04:52:29Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Perhaps dogs dream about doing active, exciting things, but cats just dream about quietly sitting around eating your corpse? This literally made me LOL, emphasis on the L. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/19 "2020-04-05T05:37:47Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Perhaps dogs dream about doing active, exciting things, but cats just dream about quietly sitting around eating your corpse? There could be some truth to dogs making more overt movements while dreaming. Dogs are pursuit hunters, while cats are ambush hunters. Dogs dream of running after a rabbit, while cats dream of sitting perfectly still before pouncing on that mouse. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080/20 "2020-04-05T05:42:52Z")
My cat makes the strangest sound when he dreams. I’ve never heard it when he’s awake. It’s like a warbling growl that goes up and down in pitch. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-can-tell-when-dogs-are-dreaming-but-not-cats/851080.md?page=2)