Everything about animals asleep | Healthy

Claudia Vinke, behavioral biologist and researcher at the faculty of veterinary medicine at Utrecht University, can be brief about it: Yes. Although little is known about it yet. For her PhD, she is investigating the stress that animals experience when they end up in the shelter. This shows that a dog, when introduced to a new environment, may suffer from changes and be awake for a large part of the night. “With meters we could see that newly arrived shelter dogs produced a lot of cortisol – or stress hormone. As the dog gets used to the place, this becomes less and less; usually after three days.”

Cats brought to the shelter were seen to recover three to four days earlier if they had a ‘shelter box’ upon arrival in a new cage. “Safety is very important to sleep well, and that is important to process stress.”

The impact of such stress on a dog is great, Vinke saw; they get very tired. “As long as the animal can recover, the events have no consequences. Persistent sleep deprivation can have consequences for the animal’s health. “It can become more sensitive to inflammation, infections, stomach ulcers. Psychologically you can also see that the dog is leveling off a bit, or is becoming more anxious or peevish.”

Even dogs that have been traumatized sometimes cannot sleep at night. “We see restless sleep patterns in animals that have had unpleasant experiences. They are startled a lot, sometimes accompanied by a high-pitched bark, or they suddenly wake up in fear. We cannot yet prove what that was. A dream perhaps?”

And then you have dogs that are ‘stimulus sensitive’ and are so busy that they take little rest. “You hear back from owners: ‘My dog ​​doesn’t sleep all day, he or she goes along with every movement I make.’ Those dogs only sleep at night, while a dog also has to sleep during the day, about 16 hours a day.” All predators do that, says Vinke; Cats and ferrets also sleep 70% of their time.

Can you help your animal sleep better? Yes, Vinke saw with the shelter animals. “If you give an animal a greater sense of security, it will sleep better and deeper and it can deal with stress better. Give an animal a nice place to lie down with a soft bed, away from a lot of noise. Maintain a routine during the day, with enough exercise. It is wise to take it easy in the evening. It works just like it does with children; the more excitement, the more difficult it is for them to enter the resting phase and fall asleep properly.”