Sunday, March 23, 2014

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!

11 comments:

  1. Yes, always be nice to our guinea pig friends! Your post made me giggle a lot--very informative and cute! xo Jennifer

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  2. Jasper and Oliver definitely dream! Their little noses and feet twitch, and a few times they've even wheeked a little in their sleep. The cats dream too, but hopefully not about chasing the pigs...

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  3. Adorable! I will be sure to watch out for signs of piggy-dreamings... and continue to give them good content for their dreams, haha.

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    1. If you give us carrots during the day and then we dream about it again at night, it's like we have carrots twice! Keep that in mind. :-)

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  4. We sort of dream. Last night we had sad dreams about our owner. She had to come home late, finish homework, take a shower and practice piano before being with us. WAHH!! (This was not the dream)
    XOXO
    Ashley & Wendy

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    1. Sometimes you just have to wheek loudly when your humans forget to make you their top priority. Try it next time! :-)

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  5. OK! Good advice! Today she cleaned our cage and we spent lots of quality time together!
    XOXO
    Ashley & Wendy

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  6. this is so cute--i didn't know that guinea pigs dreamed at all!

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  7. my guinea pigs ears twitch when she sleeps

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  8. I can also confirm that my girl "Big Mama" dreams when she has been awake for too long and finally manages to get some deep rest. Usually her babies (still pregnant but due to pop any day!) refuse to let her sleep and start kicking whenever she tries to. When she does tho, her ears flap, nose twitches, starts talking to herself, and also pretends she munching on veggies lol

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