Do Guinea Pigs Dream?

We've previously blogged about the sleep habits of guinea pigs, in which we talked about when we sleep. But have you ever wondered what's going on in our minds when we're asleep? Do we dream just like humans do?

Am I dreaming?

According to Psychology Today, "All mammals share the same neural structures that are important in sleeping and dreaming." The article also quotes some research on rats that shows similar brain activity while asleep as when they run through mazes during the day. In other words, they're dreaming about that maze they just ran through.

Similarly, on the guinea pig forums, we saw someone who claimed their guinea pig was moving his legs in his sleep, and someone who claimed they saw their guinea pig's eyes moving rapidly during sleep, just like human REM sleep.  (REM sleep, or rapid-eye movement sleep, is when dreaming generally occurs.) Someone else claims they saw their guinea pig chewing in his sleep. Just like the rat who dreams of running mazes, it's a safe bet that your guinea pig is probably dreaming about the stuff he or she was doing that day. So make sure you're nice to your guinea pigs if you want us to have good dreams!