Do dogs dream? The answer may make you love your pup more.

My foster dog, Darla, a pit bull with gastrointestinal problems, trembles in her sleep. I assume she dreams of squirrels, which she chases mercilessly while awake. Maybe I’m right.

Research shows that dogs almost certainly dream. Any doubt stems from the fact that they cannot use language to convey and confirm their experiences: yes, they had a nightmare about the vacuum cleaner last night.

“There will never be a silver bullet [that proves dogs, or any animal, dreams],” says David M. Peña-Guzmán, professor of philosophy of science at San Francisco State University and author of When animals dream: the hidden world of animal consciousness.

“It’s not about finding that one piece of evidence that will make or break the case for animal dreaming,” he said. “Rather, it is about analyzing a complex web of evidence.”

A cursory search on YouTube confirms that dogs shake, kick, and do a lot of cute things in their sleep. None of this proves that they are dreaming. But their brain activity strongly suggests this.

Like humans, dogs enter REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, when their brain activity is very similar to that when they are awake. That’s when people dream. The same probably applies to dogs.

In fact, when it comes to sleep, the two species are so similar, one study shows Scientific reports concluded that we can learn more about human sleep by studying the brain activity of sleeping dogs.

What do dogs dream about?

Probably what they have to deal with in their waking lives. In his book, Peña-Guzmán cited the research of primatologist Kimberly Mukabee, who observed sleeping chimpanzees using ASL to sign for coffee, a treat they had tasted while awake.

In the 1960s, neuroscientist Michel Jouvet discovered studied cats with damage to the pons, the part of the brainstem responsible for muscle atony, which prevents animals from moving during REM sleep. While they were technically asleep, they jumped and clawed, a strong sign that they were dreaming about exactly what you’d expect: chasing prey.

According to the book, dogs exhibit similar behavior Do dogs dream? Almost everything your dog wants you to know, written by Stanley Coren, a psychology professor who studies dog behavior. And Research has shown that rats exhibit the same brain activity in REM sleep as they do while running through mazes.

While we may be able to infer what dogs dream about based on their waking obsessions (fallen pieces of steak, playing in the park, being petted by their humans, etc.), the way they experience those dreams may be completely foreign to us. Anyone who has patiently waited for their pup to inspect every tree and lamppost on their street knows that dogs experience the world largely through smell.

[Related: Do cats and dogs remember their past?]

A dog’s nose contains hundreds of millions of receptors, compared to our approximately 6 million. Like snakes and cats, they have a vomeronasal organ that detects chemicals we cannot detect, such as pheromones that signal another dog is ready to mate.

Because they experience the world through their noses, it’s reasonable to assume that smell determines how they experience dreams, Peña-Guzmán said. Unlike light, scents linger and float. A family may leave the house, but to the dog they are still present in the form of their distinctive scent. Your dog also maps physical space based on scent. That completely different relationship to time and space could result in dreams that we can hardly imagine.

We may never know exactly what dogs dream about and what those dreams feel or look like. But by taking into account what we know about their emotions, social lives and memory, we can delineate “the space of what is possible” in their dreams, he said.

Why it’s important for dogs to dream

According to Peña-Guzmán, “as soon as you can reasonably attribute dreams to a being, you must automatically attribute consciousness to it.”

“Dreaming is an internal reality that is lived,” he said. “And that’s usually what we mean by consciousness. It is something that an organism undergoes, which gives it a certain kind of world.”

Scientists and philosophers disagree about a definition of human consciousness, let alone one for animals, so this is not a universal definition. But viewing a dog as a sentient being, as opposed to a fur-eating and breeding machine, can affect its moral and legal status in society.

In our laws and social norms, we treat dolphins and gorillas differently than chickens, partly because we think they have richer inner lives. Viewing dogs as sentient animals could lead to more robust legal protections, including some that take their mental well-being into account.

Animal rights issues aside, seeing your dog as a sentient, dreaming animal can change your personal relationship with your pet. Peña-Guzmán has received messages from readers telling him that the book has “peeled back a new layer of complexity” or “revealed a new kind of depth” for the pets they already loved.

“A few people said, ‘I now spend my time wondering what my dog ​​or cat is dreaming about.’” That pause, Peña-Guzmán said, of reflecting on your dog’s inner world can be quite powerful and empowering . humiliating.

“I think that this wonder can be an ethical gesture on our part, because it introduces a moment of pause or hesitation in our relationship with animals that reminds us that they are their own subjects with their own lives, in which we may play an important role to play. … but at the end of the day, they are not here to help or serve us,” he said. “They are in this world to live their own lives.”