By Be That Dog on November 3, 2016 • ( Leave a comment )

Huw Le Lytle answers all your questions in his column of wit and wisdom, For the Asking!

Huw’s for the asking!

BY Huw Le Lytle

In today’s questions …

Dream, Dream, Dream

Q: Dear Huw, do dogs dream? – P, Bristol, UK

A: Dear P, thank you for your question. Why yes indeed, dogs do dream. But it’s what we dream about that is perhaps a more difficult question. Strangely enough, even that is not an impossible question. Clever people have discovered that our brains are much like those of humans, and so they have been able to read our brains while we sleep and speculate that we are dreaming with at least the same kinds of motivations, even if they can’t tell exactly what are dreams might be.

But following on from this, a Harvard psychologist, Dr Deirdre Barrett, has said recently that we probably dream about our humans, especially if we share a close bond. So yes … Human’s face and smell and lots of games and treats!

And anyone around dogs will have seen us asleep with our legs twitching, or seemingly running. And sometimes we even talk in our sleep, making all sorts of different sounds at times.

There are lots of reasons to dream. Dreaming helps us recover after our day, it is also a way to review our day, and it might even be practice for a new day!

And of course, if we have good dreams, you can also be sure that we might have some bad ones. That said, even nightmares can help with a day, especially when you wake up and realise it was all a dream!

But what I really like about dreams is that they are about memories … good and bad, it is true, but memories all the same. And our memories are how we see the world. So we are also telling ourselves stories in our dreams, our impression of the world. And that is very fascinating indeed.

So, without giving away my dreams, you can probably be assured that I enjoy the opportunity to revisit a lot of my very special memories. And very special dogs.