Do Dogs Dreams?

Dream is an integral part of every living creature’s life. You are a dream, living in a dream, dreaming about dream. Well as complicated the above verse seems, similarly complex it is in the terms of understanding. The most difficult thing since inception of time has been to comprehend what are these dreams and from where are the put into the crevices of brain.

Till date it was considered that only humans amongst other species had the ability to dream, this was thought so as humans have a fully formed cerebrum which instills imaging power into them. with evolution of time, scientists have been working hard to know the intricacies of dream and how are the formed. But the major question that falls here, are humans the only creature who dream? Are there more species who dream and if so what do they dream about?

The ones who top these list of research after humans are our other closest buddies, our companions and partner in crime – our pets.

Research and studies have proven, our four-pawed buddies, dogs also dream. Have you ever noticed your dog kicking, growling, paddling legs, wagging tails, etc. demonstrating behaviors that more or less are similar to the activities performed when awake. While experiments were conducted on rats where they were made to run in a circular peddle, a distinctive pattern was seen creating in their brain which were neuron activities. This proved the level of speed in which the brain worked when awake.

Dreams are often considered to be consequences of activities and memories stored in the short term memory or the conscious part of the mind which activates itself or to be put in better words reloads itself when asleep. The brain rewinds all the activities and memories that were collected in bits and pieces, making a pattern of them in the subconscious mind. Studies state, the hippocampus of the brain is the region responsible for activating signals of dreams into our system. When researched on rats, dogs and cats a similar pattern were found as that of humans. This helped scientists come to conclude that dogs when in the state of rest, its brain collects the information and replays them giving experiences of dreaming.

In humans this is called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and it is in this state where dreaming activities are observed and take place.

Dreams are safety valves of our unconscious desires, a quote that stands quiet relevant for humans and dogs as well. Maybe your dog in its dream world may be dreaming about catching a cat or stealing a piece of candy from the table while in party which in actual may lead to troublesome situations.