Do Dogs Dream?

Ever noticed Fido wagging his tail or paddling away furiously in his sleep?

Well, our canine companions may be more similar to us than we think. Dreaming appears to be a necessary function that comes with data processing and memory storage. And while Fido has an amazing memory of always knowing where his favourite squeaky ball is, it appears that our dog's memory banks need the occasional purging and re-organising just like ours does!

Dogs and humans appear to have two main sleep patterns - the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep and the Slow Wave Sleep (SWS). The first stage of sleep is the SWS where we retain our muscle tone but our mental processes start slowing down. This is followed by REM where the body is fully relaxed and darting eye movements take place. Dogs and humans can be woken up from sleep more easily during SWS while our fully-relaxed muscles make it harder to wake during REM.

In the SWS stage, brain waves are slow and undulating but in the REM stage, brain waves become rapid and irregular and mental activity becomes heightened. This may explain why Fido would start wagging his tail, whimpering in excitement or even paddle away furiously while his eye's are darting about in his sleep. Try not to wake your dog up during this stage of deep-sleep because, like us, they need periods of uninterrupted sleep for healthy mental activity.

So, what might Fido be dreaming about? That's still a million-dollar question.

We might never find out exactly what goes on in his dreams but what we do know is that with all the snoring and twitching, it makes us want to snuggle up for a quick nap too!