Losing sleep is one of the worst things ever. Just a small incident can cause the rest of your day to be worse. On the contrary, though, a good night’s sleep can cause you to wake up feeling rested and ready to go. Dreams are often the companions of sleep and they take two forms: sweet dreams and nightmares.
Nightmares feel so real in the moment!
Even if the dream is ridiculous in retrospect, nightmares often feel so real. It would be great if every time you had a nightmare, you got woken up so you could have a peaceful night’s sleep.
This puppy took on that responsibility!
Dogs have dreams, too! If you need any proof, simply watch a sleeping dog twitch and jerk in their sleep, probably chasing rabbits and squirrels. We may never know what dogs truly dream about, but we do know that some of them may be nightmares.
Dogs go through sleep cycles just like humans.
The AKC explains that dogs and humans have sleep patterns that are similar to each other.
Like us, dogs and other animals go through several sleep cycles. There are periods of wakefulness, followed by Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, and non-rapid-eye-movement sleep. REM sleep is the period responsible for the most memorable and vivid dreams and is believed to be a part of how the body processes memory, among other things. Scientists can track these cycles and associated brain activity using specialized equipment.
It is during certain cycles that humans and dogs are more likely to dream!
This little puppy noticed that his old friend was dreaming.
These two golden retrievers were napping together when the old-timer started twitching a bit. The twitching woke up the puppy, who then noticed that his friend was dreaming.
Once he noticed his friend was dreaming, he decided to wake him up.
Dogs truly are smart animals, and you can see it in this video. The puppy has probably had dreams of his own and knew what the older dog was going through. He was nervous that his friend might be having nightmares so he decided to wake him up with a solid “boop.”
Did you see the older dog twitching?
Dogs (and sometimes humans) twitch in their sleep. If you watch carefully, you will notice that older dogs and puppies twitch a lot more than other dogs. There is a super cool reason for this!
The Pons.
There is an area in the brain known as the Pons and it is responsible for making sure your body doesn’t do wild things while you sleep. If you dream of walking, the pons stops you from getting up and walking away in real life.
In puppies and older dogs, the pons doesn’t work right!
The AKC says:
You may have noticed that puppies and older dogs twitch and move a lot in their sleep. This is because the pons is underdeveloped in puppies and less efficient in older dogs, according to Stanley Coren, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia. The same is true for human infants and older adults.
This puppy was just wanting to look out for his friend.
This cute little guy didn’t know about all that brain stuff — he just wanted to help out his friend! We all need a friend like that in our lives.
Check out the video below.
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