Question: Do animals have dreams, because my dog is always making noise in her sleep and we think she is dreaming?

Asked by ipadminilover711 to Emma, Josie, Kristyn, Peter, Sarah on 30 Aug 2013. This question was also asked by emeralddragon101, jaimee207.

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  1. Photo: Josien de BieJosien de Bie
    answered on 30 Aug 2013:

    I think so. They must have the same sort of physiological things going on during sleep, and if dreams are triggered by physiological things, it would logically follow that animals have them as well. The behavior you’re seeing is another indication,
    and we know animals have REM sleep.

    It’s a tricky question though, because you can’t ask an animal whether they dreamed or not and a lot about dreaming is about perception.

    Thanks for the cool question, it really made me sit and think for a bit.

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  2. Photo: Emma StewartEmma Stewart
    answered on 30 Aug 2013:

    I agree with Josie! I am fairly sure my cat dreams, because her whiskers and paws twitch a lot and she makes funny noises when she sleeps! I think she’s dreaming about chasing mice… 🙂

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  3. Photo: Kristyn BatesKristyn Bates
    answered on 30 Aug 2013:

    I think they do, though as Josie said-we can’t really ask them!
    But because animals have memories (dogs know when its dinner time for sure!) and dreams are involved in the way that memories are formed, its probably very likely that they are dreaming 🙂
    I don’t know if my goldfish have dreams though….

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Comments

  1. Photo: jcubo03jcubo03
    commented on 31 Aug 2013:

    My dog makes grunts when he’s sleeping, its really weird. I saw this dog on youtube and while it was sleeping its paws were moving around (I think it was chasing a cat). When it woke up it went really crazy and ran into a wall. Why do you think it did that?

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    • Photo: KristynKristyn
      commented on 2 Sep 2013:

      Oh dear, that sounds awful for the poor You Tube dog! I hope he wasn’t having any problems like seizures or abnormal brain activity to make him do that! The dog may have just woken up too quickly though and not realised that it was awake and not asleep 🙂
      My dog’s paws and whiskers twitch when he’s dreaming, sometimes he even whines a bit-he loves chasing birds and I think that’s what he’s dreaming about.

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  2. Photo: ipadminilover711ipadminilover711
    commented on 2 Sep 2013:

    I am glad that i made you sit and think about it because this sort of thing is always making me think.

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  3. Photo: ibigwoodibigwood
    commented on 5 Sep 2013:

    One time my dog was whining in his sleep (possibly a nightmare) and then i’ve seen a youtube video of a dog dreaming and its running (while lying on its side) and then it gets up and runs into the wall. Hahaha it’s so funny 😛

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