Cheer up, sleepy Jean, oh what can it mean
To a daydream believer and a homecoming queen?
Beeker is sleeping and as he gets into a deeper sleep he starts moving his paws back and forth. His eyes move quickly in the rapid eye movement that is reflective of his deep REMs sleep. He’s dreaming and I stop writing to watch his movements. What does he dream about? He’s like most dogs who dream. He sometimes gets moving his legs so quickly I know he is dreaming of chasing little animals. Other times he whimpers like he is crying, calling out for long forgotten family members. All of our pets dream in this way. One of our past Newfoundland dogs, Belle,use to get so deep into sleep she would begin to moan so low then crescendo loudly like the Tuesday Tornado warning. When we would hear her begin to moan and getting louder, we would all listen then break out laughing. She would wake disoriented, looking at us like we were aliens. Sometimes when I notice Beeker sleeping I also hear him suckling. The whole dream behavior, like sleep itself, is a strange phenomenon. We close our eyes, then fall into a deep hibernation, while our brain shows us movies of its own creation, then we wake up to act like nothing happened. Its like a computer that runs an antivirus check nightly. But I digress…
Beeks dreams most every time he sleeps. He likes to rough up his sleeping rug so that his nest is not under him but folded and bunched up on his side. Sometimes he even kicks it around the area and sleeps away from it. The rug thing I can’t figure out. I guess if he were out in the wild he would scruff up his sleeping area to make it softer but moving it completely out of the way is strange.
So what does Beeks dream about? The internet gives lots of suggestions and possible scenarios but it seems they are all just hypotheses. One site: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Dogs-701/2008/10/Dog-41.htm gives reasonable scientific indicators that dogs dream but since I figure they dream like humans and other animals I’m on beyond that. The site however also gives additional sites to view so they may be more helpful. http://www.pet-tails.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=234 gives some interesting info about how a dog sleeps. If (like Beeks) a dog is curled up it probably isn’t fully relaxed and so isn’t in deep REMs sleep but in SWS (slow wave sleep). When it is very relaxed and sprawled, with legs running he is in REMS. Then again, have you ever seen a dog sleeping with its legs in the air and its back to the ground? We had a dog, Beau (the other Newfoundland Male) that use to sleep like that. Turns out dogs are smart (we knew didn’t we?). They sleep like this to cool their underbelly off. The article also says that older dogs dream more than younger dogs, so they need more time in REMs sleep to dream, AND when they get awakened in the middle of their sleep, they are more likely to be grouchy. Hence the adage, “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie”. What about dogs that sleep back to back or touching each other when they sleep? They are bonding, so when your dog sleeps next to you (or our cat, Brad) it is bonding to you, likes you and wants to be near you when it sleeps.
I like to think that Beeker is plotting to create an animal haven where all of the wild animals get along and live happily ever after. He will have lots of animal friends of different species like rabbits and mice, and squirrels and fox, and hawks. What a grand world it would be. They are just outside our door and he knows them all. They are just waiting for an invitation to party! Sweet Daydream Believer and a Homecoming Beeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment