Question: Is there a difference between dog mental patterens when they're asleep and human's when there asleep?

Alex Reid answered on 8 Nov 2018:

Hi, thanks for the great question. A lot of animals have been used in sleep research. In fact one of the most famous sleep stages (Rapid Eye Movement sleep) was first discovered in a rabbit! All animals as we know it have some kind of sleep and in many cases there are huge overlaps in the way it looks in their brains and ourselves. If fact there is so much similarity we can look at the sleep records from animals and tell what sleep stages they are in just like humans. For example, dogs have Rapid Eye Movement sleep just like us! In fact here is a link to a video of a pupper having some REM sleep (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:REM_-_Rapid_eye_movement_sleep_of_a_dog.webm). In humans this is the sleep stage most associated with visual dreaming, so it is likely that this dog is also having some kind of dream (although we can’t ask him). As for the specific sleep patterns of dogs, it can vary quite a lot both depending on the breed, size, and age. Some dogs may have trouble sleeping due issues of inbreeding (such as pugs) which have squashed noses and this can have a bad effect on sleep. Larger breeds also tend to sleep more. Generally speaking though dogs require more sleep than us. A human adult needs about 8 hours plus or minus two (so 6-10 hours) of sleep a night. Dogs will sleep around 12-14 hours a day (but not as much as cats who need around 16 hours).