Can animals dream like us? Science gives us fascinating clues

The idea that animals can dream is not as recent as one might think. Moreover, From Antiquity, AristotleAristotle suggested that animals could experience a dream form, after observing a sleeping dog bark.

But it was in the 1950s. Therefore, with the research of the French neuroscientist Michel Jouvet, that the quest for the animal dream takes a more serious and scientific turn. In addition, The researcher then made a capital discovery: the paradoxical sleepparadoxical sleep. Consequently, During this sleep stadium, the brainbrain is very active, with neural activation schemes similar to those observed when awake. However, the body remains completely motionless, as paralyzed.

A few years later, he realized that this paradoxical sleep state also concerns cats. Nevertheless, To understand the phenomenon, it deactivates the mechanism which normally paralyzes the movementsmovements Foulins during their sleep. And surprise: when cats sleep paradoxical, they start leaping and hunting, while still being asleep.

A long quest to understand animal dreams

Decades later, technological progress makes it possible to push research even further.

In the 1990s, during a study, MIT researchers implanted electrodeselectrodes in the brain of rats. After having made them run in a labyrinth during the day, they analyze their brain activity during their sleep. Result: neuronesneurones Rats replay the same activity sequences as when they were running can animals dream like us? in the labyrinth.

The discoveries then multiply. Ethologist Kimberly Mukabee observes sleeping chimpanzees. finds that they use the American sign language, a form of communication they use when awake. In 2012. a study reveals that the cuttlefish, a cephalopod remote mammals, was also observed present signs of paradoxical sleep: changes of colorcolormovements of eyeseyes and tremors of the body. Other research shows that some birds. such as diamonddiamond Mandarin, emit sounds during their sleep which correspond to the melodies heard or sung during the day.

Since sleeping in dogs is very similar to ours. scientists think that similarities could also extend to dreams. © Marwan

And that’s not all: signs of paradoxical sleep have been observed in other non -Mammalian animals such as certain reptiles. fish, and even spiders.

But if animals dream, can animals dream like us? what are they dreaming of?

As research progresses, the limits of our understanding of animal sleep cycles are progressing. But a question persists: do animals really dream, and if so, what do they see in our dreams?

Although science does not yet have a final response. the experiences carried out on Jouvet cats and the rats of the MIT suggest that some animals may well replay scenes from their daily life in their dreams. “” Humans dream of the same things that concern them during the day, but more visual and less logical. There is no reason to think that animals are different. Explained Deirdre Barrett, clinical and evolutionary psychologist at the Harvard Medical School, before clarifying: everything related to animal dreams, even their ability to dream, is speculation ».

Even if you have to be careful not to fall into anthropomorphism too quickly. it remains fascinating to observe that some animals, such can animals dream like us? as elephants, can develop traumatic memories which seem to affect them even in their sleep. “” They lost their family, saw their mother being massacred, and they arrive here filled with aggressiveness, devastated, broken and mourning. They suffer from nightmares andinsomniainsomnia “, Explained Daphne Sheldrick, pioneer in environmental protection and founder of the Nairobi Elephant Nursery.

Although we are not yet able to talk to animals to know if they really dream at night. scientific advances open up fascinating perspectives. In the near future, theartificial intelligenceartificial intelligence could play a key role in understanding this mystery.