Your dog is probably dreaming about your face while snoozing

In what is likely one of the most adorable psychological musings, a recent People magazine interview with a clinical and evolutionary psychologist from Harvard Medical School revealed that your dog is probably dreaming about you. While taking care to note that her answers were speculative (since it’s difficult to conduct comprehensive dream studies on animals who can’t speak), Dr. Deidre Barrett shared that based on the behavioral patterns of dogs, and their constant stimulation and obsession with their owners, your dog is most likely dreaming about you. She theorized that because dreams involve the brain processing the senses and emotions connected to daily life and patterns, it’s highly likely that your dog is not only snoozing to visions of your face, but that they’re also contemplating how much they love that new Chanel scent you’ve been wearing, as well as new tactics for cuddling and pleasing you.

Unsurprisingly, the internet was immediately set on fire after reading this news, with streams of memes and tweets about dogs dreaming about owners pouring into all corners of the internet. Hopefully this new psychological possibility won’t cause dog-lovers to ironically interfere with the very REM sleep cycles that enables their dogs to dream about them. The last thing animal-loving Dr. Barrett would want is for her interview to be the sole cause of a new epidemic of sleep-deprived dogs, who have been selfishly woken by owners who couldn’t resist the temptation to loudly snap a picture.

Little did Dr. Barrett know, this would be the interview quote that would launch a thousand dog memes:

“Humans dream about the same things they’re interested in by day, though more visually and less logically. There’s no reason to think animals are any different. Since dogs are generally extremely attached to their human owners, it’s likely your dog is dreaming of your face, your smell and of pleasing or annoying you.”

https://twitter.com/harrysosborn/status/789242282620977153

Anything that encourages more pictures of sleeping puppies is welcomed information by me.

Sadly, for the cat lovers feeling left out, Dr. Barrett’s answer revealed that cats are most likely focused on hunting or dominating mice, rather than pleasing their owners:

“We actually know more about cats dreams, because one of the earliest sleep researchers, Michel Jouvet, destroyed the tiny area in cat brains that inhibits movements during REM sleep. Cats lay quietly through the other stages of sleep, and when REM began, they leapt up, stalked, pounced, arched their backs and hissed. They looked like they were hunting mice in their dreams.”

Then again, for lovers of both animals, the difference is hardly surprising. We all know that dogs are fiercely loyal and obsessive on a level that would be terrifying if they were people (then again we wouldn’t lock them in crates if they were human). Cats have always lived on a completely different psychological planet.

Original by Bronwyn Isaac