Canine REM's

[ssurgul]

Huh. While winding down toward bed tonight, I was able to watch BJ up close and personal for a while, while he slumbered as deeply as anyone can.

The whole paw-twitch thing happened, of course, but then, I watched his other muscles convulse in seemingly random patterns and strengths as well, and his eyes did the twitch/movement thing as well. If I had any doubts that a dog 'dreams of chasing rabbits', they're pretty well dispelled. Sad to feel an old legend pass, but it was fairly flimsy in its own right anyway.

Comments

[diadexxus.livejournal.com]

Kitties do it too!! Whisker to tails! Funny as hell to watch..

-J

[ssurgul.livejournal.com]

Yep. I think that over the years we, as humans, just developed that kewl little enzyme/drug thingy in our brains to help suppress the whole body-twitch thing as we sleep. Poor poochies and kitties don't seem to have it very well developed. So they just give a cute little show for us instead. :)

[dinosnake.livejournal.com]

Oh, we twitch all right. The level of 'twitch' is dependent upon the individual - how much the brain is locking up the muscle system during the REM sleep cycle to prevent our bodies from reacting to the sub-conscious thoughts of a dream. Some dreams are so powerful that they can burst through the lockdown.

And that's where night time hard-ons come from.

You don't twitch much?