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Do dogs and cats really dream?

By Maryann Mott, HealthDay
6/29/2010

How many pet owners have gotten a chuckle out of watching their dog sleep while its paws race frenetically in place?

Many figured that Rover was romping somewhere in dreamland, and scientists say they were right: Pets do dream while sleeping.

As dogs and cats doze, images of past events replay in their minds much the same way humans recall experiences while dreaming, said Matthew Wilson of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory in Cambridge, Mass. That's because the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory, is basically wired the same way in virtually all vertebrates and mammals, he said.

"If you compared a hippocampus in a rat to a dog; in a cat to a human, they contain all of the same pieces," said Wilson, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences.

"If you compared a hippocampus in a rat to a dog; in a cat to a human, they contain all of the same pieces," said Wilson, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences.

Like people, pets go through multiple stages of sleep, from periods of slow wave sleep to REM (rapid eye movement), where most dreaming occurs.

"From the minute your head hits the pillow and you're out, the dreaming process begins," he said.

Non-REM dreams consist of quick snapshots of things usually done that day. During the deeper sleep state of REM, dreams last much longer and tap into a vast pool of past experiences drawn from weeks, months, even years in the past.

REM occurs approximately every 90 minutes in people, and every 25 minutes in cats.

In dogs, research shows the frequency and length of dreams is linked to their physical size, said psychologist Stanley Coren, author of several books, including "How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind."

For example, he said, mastiffs and Great Danes might dream every 45 minutes for about five minutes, compared to their smaller canine cousins that enter a dream state every 10 minutes with episodes lasting less than 60 seconds.

Owners can tell if their dozing dog or feline is dreaming by looking for these clues: whisker twitching, paw tremors, irregular breathing and â€" in dogs â€" occasional high-pitched yips.

But what do our pets dream about? Researchers believe they know the answer. Older studies, done decades ago in cats, involved temporarily releasing the suppression of motor activity that happens during REM sleep so they'd act out their dreams.

What researchers witnessed is sleepwalking cats doing things they'd normally do while awake â€" walking, swatting their forepaws, even pouncing on imaginary prey.

Similar research showed the same held true for dogs.

"Pointers point at dream birds, and Dobermans growl at dream burglers," Coren said.

Those experiments were not a demonstration of actual dreaming, said MIT's Wilson, but do suggest that in REM sleep the brain is functioning the same way it behaves during normal wakefulness. As early as 2001, he decided to find out if animals did in fact dream by eavesdropping on the sleeping brain.


more at:  http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/pets/2010-06-29-dogs-cats-dream_N.htm

sleepwalking cat

Cat's Dream

Pablo Neruda

How neatly a cat sleeps,
sleeps with its paws and its posture,
sleeps with its wicked claws,
and with its unfeeling blood,
sleeps with all the rings--
a series of burnt circles--
which have formed the odd geology
of its sand-colored tail.

I should like to sleep like a cat,
with all the fur of time,
with a tongue rough as flint,
with the dry sex of fire;
and after speaking to no one,
stretch myself over the world,
over roofs and landscapes,
with a passionate desire
to hunt the rats in my dreams.

I have seen how the cat asleep
would undulate, how the night
flowed through it like dark water;
and at times, it was going to fall
or possibly plunge into
the bare deserted snowdrifts.
Sometimes it grew so much in sleep
like a tiger's great-grandfather,
and would leap in the darkness over
rooftops, clouds and volcanoes.

Sleep, sleep cat of the night,
with episcopal ceremony
and your stone-carved moustache.
Take care of all our dreams;
control the obscurity
of our slumbering prowess
with your relentless heart
and the great ruff of your tail.

Translated by Alastair Reid

Quote from: islander on April 24, 2012, 04:34:11 PM
I have seen how the cat asleep
would undulate, how the night
flowed through it like dark water;
and at times, it was going to fall
or possibly plunge into
the bare deserted snowdrifts.
Sometimes it grew so much in sleep
like a tiger's great-grandfather,
and would leap in the darkness over
rooftops, clouds and volcanoes.

Hmm, gadamgo man ni siya nga banggiitan siyang gitarista...

Quote from: islander on April 24, 2012, 06:34:01 PM

Mao ni iring liwat sa tag-iya... kusog mag damgo 

Cute kaayo ning iring ug iro tan awon ug mag damgo. Permi kong magdug ug iring all my life gikan sa gamay pa ug sa tanang butang nga ganahan nako  tan awon ang natug nga iring ug iro kay peaceful kaayo sila tan awon mawala atong stress.

kadto pod tawong bag-ong nipanaw namong iro nga si rex kusog kaayo to magdamgo ug daman.  kausa nakagawas mi tanan alas dos sa kaadlawon ug nangadto sa iyang doghouse kay grabe ang daman, dugay nakamata nga among gipukaw kay mora na gyod intawog gibangungot.   

Hmm, unsa kahay gidamgo ani niya... 

Gidamgo ko sa una gamay pa ko nga nag alsa kono ko ug troso unya nadakdak  then napanggos akong kilid sa dunggan, nataymingan pud to nga akong iring nagbugno samtang natulog ko ug pagmata nako akong damgo murag tinuod kay dako kaayo ko ug kinamrasan nga mura bitaw pud ug napangos sa kahoy. Dito pud tong duha ka iring nagkinamrasay sa kilid sa akong dunggan. O.T ni pero naa gihapoy related kay iring man,bale di raman iring nagdamgo tawo pero gibackgroundnan ug iring nagkinamrasay.