While reading chapter five in the Lilienfeld text on sleeping disorders, I noticed an excerpt about narcolepsy effecting dogs. My first though was, I must look this up! So there I was, searching YouTube looking up dogs with sleeping disorders. I was amazed to find that the symptom that they had were almost identical to how humans go through with such disorders. Continuing on with my research I had also found an online journal article that explained why these disorders occur.
The journal article explained that only domesticated animals are prone to sleeping disorders, due to fitness in the wild. The most common sleep disorders that these domesticated animals experience can range from; Enuresis "Wetting the bed", Sleep Apnea, Narcolepsy, & Sleepwalking, some of these disorders are more serious than others. I found that Sleepwalking & Narcolepsy hold more interest to the research community.
It has already been discovered that animals dream just as humans do. Evidence of this can be seen by the; "Twitching of limbs, facial muscles and vocalizations, which periodically interrupts the animal's peaceful sleep, suggesting that it is actually dreaming." [Dr. Hedricks & Dr. Morrison] A more extreme example of dreaming can be seen in the sleeping disorder sleepwalking. Dogs have been found to bark at non-existent things, simulate running while still laying down, and walking around as if they were awake.
An example of Sleepwalking:
Narcolepsy can also affect a domestic animal's way of life. Symptoms of excessive daytime sleepiness, sudden sleep attacks, & sudden paralysis don't necessarily cause harm to the animal or is particularly unpleasant, but this disorder hinder the ways in which they live their daily lives. One example in particular that I found is a miniature poodle named Skeeter, who becomes paralyzed if he's experience any type of stress, namely from excitement. This type of disorder isn't quite understood yet, but it is currently being study to find out what causes this disorder.
An example of Narcolepsy:
Source:
"Do Animals Have Sleep Disorders?" Sleep & Health Journal. Sleep and Behaviour Medicine Institute, 04 May 2009. Web. 26 Feb. 2012.
This topic of sleeping disorders in dogs, I found extremely interesting. Everyone has seen a favorite pet immediately fall sleep, bark or act out running while sleep, or maybe occasionally sleep walking. The videos show a great representation if a person has not seen an event like this in person.
It is also easing to the mind to known that research is being done on this particular subject. If these sleeping disorders are causing problems or inhibiting the animal's life or function in any way, something needs to be done for these animals. It is also good to know that studying these affects in dogs could possible help humans or the other way around. Everyone loves their pets and want to help them out in anyway possible.