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Books

When Animals Dream by David M. Pena-Guzman

Nick Everitt is skeptical about animals dreaming.

During the nineteenth century it was widely believed by both scientists and lay people that some species of non-human animals dream. Charles Darwin, for example, declared without reservation that “dogs, cats, horses, and probably all the higher animals, even birds…have vivid dreams” (The Descent of Man, 1871). This widespread conviction was not based on any rigorous scientific investigation, but was accepted simply as a matter of common sense. Challenged about its rational basis, a defender of the idea would simply point to the behaviour of various species of sleeping animal. The sleeping hound, for example, whose paws twitched, whose tail wagged, who sniffed and growled and barked, was alleged to be dreaming of hunting.

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