rat dreams

I wonder what rats dream about? You know, if you cage them communally, they all pile up on top of each other to sleep. It's quite endearing really. I guess they're social like us. Maybe, if we didn't have all those cultural inhibitions, we'd sleep communally too. I mean, sleeping is pretty scary really, isn't it? You're vulnerable to predators, and bad dreams.

I wonder if rats have bad dreams? No reason why humans should have a monopoly. I mean, if animals dream, why not have bad dreams? No one who owns a dog doubts that dogs dream, although I haven't been around one enough to say whether they ever have nightmares.

They don't teach us stuff like that. I mean, I know I'm only pre-Vet, but I'm pretty damn sure they never talk about animals dreaming. And if they do, I bet they don't talk about counselling for nightmares!

I was looking at the lab rats I look after and for some reason I started thinking about that sleep paralysis thing I was talking about yesterday. And I thought, if it's a brain glitch, why shouldn't other animals have it? They wouldn't load all the cultural interpretations on it that we do, so I wonder what they think about it? Maybe they do have a mythology -- the demon dog that comes and sits on them!

Okay, I need to hit the sack; I think my brain's running away with me (now there's an interesting mental image). Night all.