Do You Think Beardies Dream?

I'm pretty sure they do. Volcano likes to fall asleep on me every night. At times he'll start slapping his right hand 3 or 4 times while he is sleeping. Other times he'll startle himself awake where he just all of a sudden jumps up on all 4 legs and start looking around quickly before staring up a me like oh it's you and then lays back down and goes to sleep. I imagine he has bad nightmares about his life before he was with me and when he wakes up and sees it's me he calms right back down and goes back to sleep. Anyway that's me opinion. What do you all think?

Image of Volcano last night after one of his startling himself awake spells. After he went back to sleep he had to be right up against my neck. And I love the arms out to both sides :lol:

A recent study has shown the beardies actually undergo REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is usually the phase of sleep associated with dreams, so the answer is very likely yes.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slumber-party-reptiles-like-us-have-rem-sleep-and-may-dream/

I'm fairly sure they do. I see Darwin twitching at night sometimes. There have also been times when he skitters across the tank or shakes himself awake in the middle of the night as if he's had a nightmare, so I think those may also be likely.

Poggerna":8h7mm135 said:

A recent study has shown the beardies actually undergo REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is usually the phase of sleep associated with dreams, so the answer is very likely yes.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slumber-party-reptiles-like-us-have-rem-sleep-and-may-dream/

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that story it was an interesting read.
I'm thinking Volcano had a nightmare last night because he jumped off my shoulder from a dead sleep and ran down the end of the bed. When I went to pick him up he at first got real low and puffed his beard out at me but after a few seconds I think he realized it was me and climbed right up my arm and back to my shoulder and went to sleep again.

Shaun78":rvvp9b8g said:

Poggerna":rvvp9b8g said:

A recent study has shown the beardies actually undergo REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is usually the phase of sleep associated with dreams, so the answer is very likely yes.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slumber-party-reptiles-like-us-have-rem-sleep-and-may-dream/

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that story it was an interesting read.
I'm thinking Volcano had a nightmare last night because he jumped off my shoulder from a dead sleep and ran down the end of the bed. When I went to pick him up he at first got real low and puffed his beard out at me but after a few seconds I think he realized it was me and climbed right up my arm and back to my shoulder and went to sleep again.

Click to expand...

Aww, poor Volcano. Hopefully he felt safe again after waking up.

Also, after seeing this thread, my brain keeps trying to read the topic as “Do Beardies Dream Of Scaly Sheep?” :lol:

That WAS an interesting article! I had no idea that beardies, and possibly other reptiles, had REM sleep. I'm also interested now in what our captive bred beardies would dream about... food, most likely; Figment has been an only dragon since his youngest days, so I wonder if he ever dreams about other dragons? He probably also dreams about his out-of-hab "walkabout" times. Neat!

Mari has never had a night terror, lol. My bird on the other hand has had screaming fits at night before and I had to turn the lights on and check on her before covering her back up and turning off the lights.