Dream: Do Animals Do It?

Do Animals Dream?

   

                Have you ever wondered if your pet dreams? If Flash or Fluffy were running through a field of dandelions or chewing on a humongous  bone? Do animals really dream? If you ever watched a dog sleeping,you probably thought to yourself that the dog was dreaming.As a matter of fact, scientists would agree about this matter. But how do they know? Do they talk to the dog and ask what it dreamed about ? Of course not! Scientists have more clever ways to learn what is going on inside a brain of an animal when its sleeping. Researchers from Cambridge University used studies made at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to decide that animals do dream. In fact, they concluded that animals have very complicated dreams that replay memories or events that happened while they were awake. Researchers studied rats that had been trained to run on a track. They plotted and measured the brain activity with electrodes while the rats were awake and running.  They then did the same thing while the rats slept .The researchers learned that the rats experience rapid eye movement(REM) sleep like humans. During REM sleep is when humans experience dreams. Scientists observed similar behavior in the rats they studied. After  comparing the information from when the rats were awake with the data from when they were asleep.. They concluded that the data strongly supported the view that the rats had replayed long series of waking events while they were asleep. In other words, the rats were dreaming about running on the track!

Dogs Like Humans

               We know that  animals dream what they did before, but doesn't that mean that they dream similar to us. For example, according to an article in PawNation, a dog named Roxy survived in a drainage ditch in the wettest and coldest part of the year with compound fractures on both wrists, for five and a half weeks. When fast asleep on most on most nights, Roxy would whimper and growl to unidentifiable sounds.  We humans  sometimes talk in our sleep. For instance, when I was at a sleep over a boy was turning and flipping about a movie he watched the previous night. He was muttering and yelling, which scared me a lot. I myself don't watch horror movies because I get nightmares when I sleep. So animals have the basic dreams like us. Past events that we remember us.

10 Types of Dreams 

1. Daydreams:  Occurs during the day and when you let your imagination carry away. As your mind begins to wander and you lose yourself in your imagined scenario  and fantasy
2. Lucid Dreams: Occur when you realize  you are dreaming. You become an active participant in your dream and "make "  your outcome happen.
3. False Awakening Dreams: Some thing that you think happened but was only a dream. For example, You thought you brushed your teeth and got ready in the morning, But wake up to find it was only a dream. 
4. Nightmares: A disturbing dream that causes you to wake up feeling anxious or frightened. This may be a response to a real trauma or situation.
5. Recurring Dreams: Repeat  themselves with little variation in story or theme. These dreams may be positive, but are nightmarish in content.
6. Healing Dreams: Messages that regard the dreamers health. Ancient Greeks called these types of dreams "prodromic" 
7. Prophetic Dreams: Precognitive or psychic dreams. They foretell the future.
8. Signal Dreams: Help you solve problems or make decisions in your life.
9. Epic Dreams: Are so huge,so compelling, and vivid that you can't ignore them.The details of these dreams remain with you for years, as if you just dreamt it last night.
10. Mutual Dreams: described as such when two people have the same dream.Not much study has gone into the phenomenon of mutual dreams, but there is a very strong bond that exist between these two people.

Source: www.dreammoods.com

Thinking Matters 

      We know that rats and dogs dream, but what animals don't dream? I challenge you to research this topic and comment on it.