Do Dogs Dream=D.D.D?
The next question is, if they do, can you detect when your dog dreams?
I am convinced that my dog dreams as well as me when on holidays.
In my case I dream on working days not on holidays.
If I dream on a holiday I consider myself sick or going to be sick.
So make sure that you do not dream on holidays; otherwise it will make the next day of YOUR holiday a misery.
In actual fact, on holidays we sleep less, do more things (as far as I am concerned) and enjoy life more.
We do not have to dream like when we are working, on holidays.
When on holidays do not dream BUT make better use of the holiday.
In any case holiday is dream come true so act on your instinct.
I have cut and pasted the probable answer/s to above but let me tell my story.
Our
prolong strike (please note, I made a resolution not to write anything
to amuse the readers, during the strike period) made me to observe my dog
and it was a welcome change.
I was bored to death.
To begin with we synchronized our sleep.
My dreams became less and less.
I was sleeping a lot and started getting up at bizarre times when my dog was fast sleep.
Fearing
I disturb his sleep, I stealthily get out of my bed and do something
mundane, like sorting out my books or files or photographs.
Then I quickly lost interested in them and one day, started watching my dog who was well into its sleep.
This became a habit.
He gets into postures which were its puppy days’ habits and happy days reproductions
The dog was in complete meditative relaxation.
He does not get up at these times and enjoy them.
I am convinced he dreams well when I am on holiday without any E.E.G. records.
So if you are bored try watching your dog and try to identify the times he or she dreams.
I believe dogs need a good dose of happy dreams.
Well there is another question to wind up.
What is the single most common dream in Ceylon?
According to my survey results, every Ceylonese dreams of becoming the president of this country.
Then he gets up happy but when he realizes that it was a dream he is frightened to death.
He
knows only one can become the president and that is also indefinitely
and he does not have a fighting chance even in a dream state.
He/She does not tell the dream even to the respective spouse.
Please do not tell this to the president.
If you do so, I am sure it will be gazetted soon “dreaming is prohibited”.
Read the article below if you have time.
Do Dogs Dream?
Dogs dream like humans and about similar things.
Published on October 28, 2010 by Stanley Coren, Ph.D., F.R.S.C. in Canine Corner
Many people believe that dogs do dream.
Most
dog owners have noticed that at various times during their sleep, some
dogs may quiver, make leg twitches or may even growl or snap at some
sleep-created phantom, giving the impression that they are dreaming
about something.
At the structural level, the brains of dogs are
similar to those of humans. Also, during sleep the brain wave patterns
of dogs are similar that of people, and go through the same stages of
electrical activity observed in humans, all of which is consistent with
the idea that dogs are dreaming.
Actually if dogs didn't dream this
would be a much greater surprise given that recent evidence suggests
that animals that are simpler and less intelligent than dogs seem to
dream.
Matthew Wilson and Kenway Louie of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology have evidence that the brains of sleeping rats are
functioning in a way that irresistibly suggests dreaming.
Much of the
dreaming that you do at night is associated with the activities that
you engaged in that day. The same seems to be the case in rats. Thus if a
rat ran a complex maze during the day he might be expected to dream
about it at night. While a rat was awake and learning the maze,
electrical recordings were taken from its hippocampus (an area of the
brain associated with memory formation and storage).
Researchers
found that some of these electrical patterns were quite specific and
identifiable depending upon what the rat was doing. Later, when the rats
were asleep and their brain waves indicated that they had entered the
stage where humans normally dream, these same patterns of brain waves
appeared. In fact the patterns were so clear and specific that the
researchers were able to tell where in the maze the rat would be if it
were awake, and whether it would be moving or standing still. Wilson
cautiously described the results, saying, "The animal is certainly
recalling memories of those events as they occurred during the awake
state, and it is doing so during dream sleep and that's just what people
do when they dream."
Find a Therapist
Since a dog's brain is more
complex and shows the same electrical sequences, it is reasonable to
assume that dogs are dreaming, as well. There is also evidence that they
dream about common dog activities. This kind of research takes
advantage of the fact that there is a special structure in the
brain-stem (the pons) that keeps all of us from acting out our dreams.
When scientists removed or inactivated the part of the brain that
suppresses acting out of dreams in dogs, they observed that they began
to move around, despite the fact that electrical recordings of their
brains indicated that the dogs were still fast asleep. The dogs only
started to move when the brain entered that stage of sleep associated
with dreaming. During the course of a dream episode these dogs actually
began to execute the actions that they were performing in their dreams.
Thus researchers found that a dreaming pointer may immediately start
searching for game and may even go on point, a sleeping Springer Spaniel
may flush an imaginary bird in his dreams, while a dreaming Doberman
pincher may pick a fight with a dream burglar.
It is really quite
easy to determine when your dog is dreaming without resorting to brain
surgery or electrical recordings. All that you have to do is to watch
him from the time he starts to doze off. As the dog's sleep becomes
deeper his breathing will become more regular. After a period of about
20 minutes for an average-sized dog his first dream should start. You
will recognize the change because his breathing will become shallow and
irregular. There may be odd muscle twitches, and you can even see the
dog's eyes moving behind its closed lids if you look closely enough. The
eyes are moving because the dog is actually looking at the dream images
as if they were real images of the world. These eye movements are most
characteristic of dreaming sleep. When human beings are awakened during
this rapid eye movement or REM sleep phase, they virtually always report
that they were dreaming.
I recently received a letter from Joseph
Baker, which seems to confirm the idea of dogs having dreams about their
everyday activities. I have taken the liberty of reproducing part of it
here.
"I have an anecdote that you may find interesting, however it
requires some back story. About three years ago I heard a story on the
radio about a cognitive scientist who was trying to understand sleep and
dreams. He had a hypothesis describing how sensory memories replay
themselves during early REM sleep. The study he published had subjects
play Tetris [a computer game where you try to line up falling blocks of
various colors] and then report whether or not they saw the little
Tetris bricks in their dreams. This stuck with me because the previous
night I had very vivid dreams involving a hike I had been on earlier. I
could feel the snow and smell the air as though it were real.
"This
brings me to my dog. Goober is a basenji, and like many basenjis he
hates water and being bathed. As soon as my wife finishes bathing him he
bolts out of the bathroom door, finds me, and tries to hide behind me
or under me. So one day Goober was forced to be cleaned and underwent
his ritual of hiding behind me. Later that night he was sleep running.
He awoke with a start, and then bolted to my location to hide under my
legs. This was very awkward as I was sitting on the toilet at the time. I
believe that he was dreaming, and I believe that he was dreaming about
having a bath. I believe this because he only engages in this behavior
when a bath is involved."
Well Joe, I believe that there are at least two psychologists at MIT who would agree with you.
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Do Dogs Dream=D.D.D?
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