The brains of sleeping animals behave the same as those of sleeping humans. Animal sleep also has different stages, just like in humans. Research with rats, elephants, dogs and cats shows that they also have REM sleep ( rapid eye movement sleep). At this stage of sleep, the eyes dart quickly back and forth. People dream the most during this sleep phase. Most likely animals do too.
Do animals process their day while sleeping?
And what would an animal dream about? To get an idea of this, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US) looked inside the heads of rats in 2001. During the day they taught the rodents the shortest route to a tasty snack in a maze. The scientists then looked at the brain activities of the rats during their trip through the maze. They compared this with the brain activity during the animals’ sleep. What turned out? While performing the task during the day, an activity pattern could be seen in the brain, which was also visible during REM sleep.
According to the researchers, the rat’s nocturnal activities are linked to daytime events. At night, the animal then dreams about his adventure in the maze that day. His maze dream lasted just as long as the actual daytime trail. The researchers even claimed to be able to see from the brain activity where the animal is in the maze in its dream.
Cats go hunting during their dreams
Other animals are also likely to dream about what they are experiencing. In 1965, French researchers removed a piece of the so-called pons in the brainstem of cats. This brain surgery ensured that the cats did not switch off their muscles while dreaming. Normally, your muscles are switched off during REM sleep. This prevents your arms and legs from moving violently, and you for example injure yourself while dreaming.
During their REM sleep, these cats roamed and sometimes behaved aggressively as if they were attacking imaginary prey. Similar later research found that cats moved their heads as if they were following something. It could very well be that they were fulfilling their dreams.
Dog may be dreams about boss
There is a good chance that a dog also dreams about his adventures of that day. And probably his owner sometimes appears in it. After all, it’s a big part of his life. But of course we don’t know that for sure. It’s a shame we can’t just ask our animals.
