Do animals dream?

Scientists have studied the brains of dogs, cats, and even birds while they sleep. These animals' brain waves look a lot like the waves people have during the sleep stage when they dream. You may have seen a sleeping dog's paws twitch, or heard it give a little growl. Scientists think this might be because it is dreaming.

In one experiment with mice, the mice ran through a maze during the day. At night while they slept, their brains worked in the same way as when they were running through the maze. It looked as if the mice were running through the maze again in their dreams.

Animals can't tell us what they see in their dreams, so we can't know for sure. But by looking at what happens in their brains, we think it is quite likely that they dream too, just like us.