A Crazy Dream and Sleeping Chickens

My toes are buried in the sand, the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore is calming and serene, and a magical Bahama Mama in my hand. I lean myself up, getting ready to take a sip of my drink when I noticed a Flamingo in front of me. “Hello there, my friend! Beautiful day.” He casually says to me as he strolls on by.  

Yes, a talking Flamingo. That’s what I dreamt about last night. Dreams are a funny thing. They can be very creative and at times, detailing. It’s not often we actually remember our dreams. It can be quite entertaining if you write them down in a journal as soon as you wake up while it’s still fresh and clear in your mind.

Niels Rattenborg of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany has spent a great time in studying chickens and other various birds on their sleeping patterns. Believe it or not, chickens can dream, too! I have my fingers crossed that they dream about flying, or perhaps they dream about their chicklings, or how about piles and piles of food to eat from. After all, they do display emotions and personalities similar to us humans.

Much like humans, Chickens have the same phases of sleep: NREM Stage 1, NREM Stage 2, NREM Stage 3, and REM Sleep. Their body relaxes, cools down, and they fall into their version of deep sleep. We can sleep for hours on end or sometimes for a few minutes, a little catnap. In Chickens and various other birds, their REM sleep happens in a few seconds at a time. Sleep, wake up, sleep, wake up, and repeat.

Read “How Chickens See”

Unlike humans, though, Chickens have an additional sleep phase called Unihemispheric Slow-Wave Sleep (USWS for short). Ever notice when a chicken sleeps, they have one eye open and one eye closed? This is the result of the USWS phase, which allows half of their brain to sleep while the other half is awake and watching for predators.

So tell us, what was the last dream you remember?