You dream every night, you might be yelling that you don’t, but you’re wrong.
Just because you don’t remember it doesn't mean you didn’t dream.
Everyone dreams.
Even animals!
Hey lovers and dreamers, Lissette here for DNews.
When your head hits the pillow at night and you fall into a deep slumber, you dream.
And we're not alone, according to new, and... well old research, animals are dreamers too.
Of course, there is no way to ask an animal once they wake up if they were dreaming, but
science points to yes, most animals dream.
And it all comes back to Rapid Eye Movement, or REM.
We sleep in stages.
REM sleep is the final stage in your sleep cycle and when dreaming occurs.
Like a lot of things in the brain, it is still a mystery, but scientists think REM sleep
has to do with storing memories and learning.
When REM sleep starts, your body sends signals to your cerebral cortex, where learning, organizing,
and thinking occur.
Signals are also sent to your spinal cord, where neurons are shut off - this causes temporary
paralysis of your limb muscles so you don't act out your dreams.
Meanwhile, random signals are also send to your cortex and some scientists think this
is where dreams come from.
They think dreams are your brain trying to make sense of those random signals, creating
something like a story.
So basically, if scientists observe REM sleep in animals, they can conclude that those animals
are dreaming.
Or to put it in a more sciency way, Patrick McNamara, director of Evolutionary Neurobehavior
Laboratory at Boston University says, “it is reasonable to suppose that animals have
something like what we call dreams.”
Until recently REM sleep cycles were only seen in mammals and some birds, but researchers
in Germany might have discovered that reptiles dream too.
Researchers put probes inside the brains of five bearded dragons to measure electrophysical
activity while they slept.
And they found that they had sleep stages similar to that of REMming humans.
So, dreams!
Or again, something like what we call dreams.
The lizards averaged 350 REM cycles lasting about 80 seconds each.
To put that in context, humans can experience 5 REM cycles a night of more than an hour
each!
But REM sleep isn’t the only way we’ve been able to tell animals dream.
Scientists can watch animals sleep and see how they move -- just like your family pooch.
But, remember how the brain paralyzes us so we don't act out our dreams?
Well, in 1959 a French neuroscientist altered the part of a cat’s brain that is responsible
for this.
So, when the cat fell asleep, it moved all sorts of ways.
Scientists observed it raising its head, arching its back and overall appearing as if it were
stalking or hunting prey.
Dream prey!
-- awesome band name.
And scientists have even studied what animals dream about.
Research done at MIT looked at rats' brain patterns when they were in REM sleep…
And found they were similar to brain patterns measured when they were running through a
maze when awake.
They figured the rats were dreaming about their daily maze running.
The two measurements were so aligned scientists could conclude where the rats were in the
dream maze.
A study was also done on zebra finches that found they might be practising their songs
while they sleep.
But what does all this mean?
Well, it helps us understand our brain a little bit more, but also a little bit more about
evolution.
If a similar sleep pattern is occurring in the brains of mammals, birds and lizards,
that means it likely existed in our common ancestor: the amniote.
Which existed about 320 million years ago, suggesting sleep patterns may have evolved
100 million years earlier than we previously thought.
Do you dream about crazy things?
Maybe you should start an online dream journal through a website.
Domain.com can help you do that!
No domain extension will help you tell your story like a DOT COM or DOT NET domain name.
And because you watch DNews, you can get 15% off Domain Dot Com’s names and web hosting
by using the code DNews when you check out.
But, even with all that.
Sleep is still pretty crazy.
Over on DNews plus Trace looked at lucid dreaming, dream monitors, and even if we could someday
record what you're dreaming about!
Check it out here.
What's the craziest dream you've had lately?
Running any mazes?
Stalking prey?
Share your thoughts in the comments and remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode
of DNews.
Thanks for watching.