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Once I had a dog and I watched him as he slept. One minute, he suddenly started moving the tips of his paws as if he were running somewhere. A moment later, he

Once I had a dog and I watched him as he slept. One minute, he suddenly started moving the tips of his paws as if he were running somewhere. A moment later, he began to move his jaw as if he started to eat something. Right after that, a bit more paw movement, and he began to smack his tongue as if he were drinking something. Then again, he started moving his paws as if he ran off somewhere. So: he ran to the bowl of food, ate, went over to the bowl of water, drank some water, and ran off again. A little while later, he woke up. That’s when I invited him to eat. Since that time, I have never doubted either that animals have some kind of consciousness or that animals can dream.

ang_cire 2y ago
Dreaming in animals is a well researched and proven phenomenon. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/what-do-dogs-dream-about/ https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/what-do-dogs-dre... > One of the most famous of these dream experiments involved lab rats. Rats in the experiment spent all day running in a maze. Scientists monitored the brain activity of the rats in the maze and compared it to the brain activity of the rats during REM sleep. What they discovered was that the same areas of the rats’ brains lit up during REM sleep as when they were running the maze, suggesting that the rats were likely to be dreaming of the maze. By comparing the data, the researchers could figure out where exactly in the maze the rats were dreaming about. There's more in that article on dogs specifically, including studies where they chemically disabled the pons, which is the part of the brain stem in vertebrate mammals (humans included) that stops us from acting out our dreams while asleep (and which is involved with disorders such as sleep walking and night terrors). Just like you deduced, the dogs are just literally dreaming about all the stuff they usually do while awake.
mensetmanusman 2y ago
Studies have been done where they deactivate the sleep paralysis chemistry from dogs and they literally run at full speed while dreaming. Pretty wild.
SoftTalker 2y ago
I think few people could deny that animals can dream, or feel pain, or fear, or happiness, or change behavior in response to reward/punishment, or figure out how to use simple tools, or how to work together to hunt or find food, as all these things are trivially observable. I don't think that animals have a higher-order awareness of these things in other creatures. A bird will eat an insect, or a cat will hunt and kill a bird without troubling itself over whether its prey is conscious. They just see it as food. So maybe not so different from humans, after all!
brandall10 2y ago
When my late female pug was young she would regularly 'sleepwalk'. She'd stand up and start digging into the mattress for about 30 seconds, then collapse back to the bed and resume snoring. Almost every night for awhile, waking us up in the process. Once I coo'ed to her while doing this and she snapped awake, jumped backwards a few inches with this freaked out look on her face.

ang_cire 2y ago

Dreaming in animals is a well researched and proven phenomenon. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/what-do-dogs-dream-about/ https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/what-do-dogs-dre... > One of the most famous of these dream experiments involved lab rats. Rats in the experiment spent all day running in a maze. Scientists monitored the brain activity of the rats in the maze and compared it to the brain activity of the rats during REM sleep. What they discovered was that the same areas of the rats’ brains lit up during REM sleep as when they were running the maze, suggesting that the rats were likely to be dreaming of the maze. By comparing the data, the researchers could figure out where exactly in the maze the rats were dreaming about. There's more in that article on dogs specifically, including studies where they chemically disabled the pons, which is the part of the brain stem in vertebrate mammals (humans included) that stops us from acting out our dreams while asleep (and which is involved with disorders such as sleep walking and night terrors). Just like you deduced, the dogs are just literally dreaming about all the stuff they usually do while awake.

mensetmanusman 2y ago

Studies have been done where they deactivate the sleep paralysis chemistry from dogs and they literally run at full speed while dreaming. Pretty wild.

SoftTalker 2y ago

I think few people could deny that animals can dream, or feel pain, or fear, or happiness, or change behavior in response to reward/punishment, or figure out how to use simple tools, or how to work together to hunt or find food, as all these things are trivially observable. I don't think that animals have a higher-order awareness of these things in other creatures. A bird will eat an insect, or a cat will hunt and kill a bird without troubling itself over whether its prey is conscious. They just see it as food. So maybe not so different from humans, after all!

brandall10 2y ago

When my late female pug was young she would regularly 'sleepwalk'. She'd stand up and start digging into the mattress for about 30 seconds, then collapse back to the bed and resume snoring. Almost every night for awhile, waking us up in the process. Once I coo'ed to her while doing this and she snapped awake, jumped backwards a few inches with this freaked out look on her face.