Why Do Dogs Twitch In Their Sleep?

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You may have noticed sudden, brief twitching at some point while your dog was sleeping and wondered if they were dreaming or even expressing some type of discomfort.

These involuntary movements—where a dog is twitching in their sleep—only occur during dream states and usually don’t last long. Twitching can happen anywhere in your dog’s body but commonly occurs in the legs, tail, or head. It may be accompanied by small vocalizations.

So is twitching just a normal part of dreaming, or are there times when you should worry?

Why Do Dogs Twitch in Their Sleep?    

Dogs sleep an average of 12-14 hours each day. While they sleep, a dog’s brain processes information and experiences from the day through dreams. Twitching is often related to active dream cycles in the brain.

According to research by psychologist Stanley Coren, an average-size dog will dream about every 20 minutes, and these dreams will last about a minute. Larger breeds have fewer dreams that last longer—about every 45 minutes for 4 minutes. The opposite is true for smaller breed dogs; they will dream about every 10 minutes for up to 30 seconds.

Dogs experience the same dream stages as humans, including non-rapid eye movement (NREM), short-wave sleep (SWS), and rapid eye movement (REM). During the REM state, a dog’s eyes move around behind their closed eyelids, and the large body muscles are turned off so the dream is not physically acted out.

The part of the brain that contains these off switches is called the pons, which is part of the brain stem. In younger dogs, the pons may still be developing, while in older dogs it may be weakening from age. This is why twitching while sleeping occurs most commonly in younger and older dogs and less often in adult dogs.

The amount of twitching depends on how much these off switches inhibit muscle movement. Puppies spend more time in dream sleep than adult dogs because they need to process more information.

Dogs that sleep in a curled position will keep their muscles tensed and are less relaxed, which may cause them to twitch less than a dog that sleeps in a stretched-out position. Any outside stimulation from loud noises such as thunder, fireworks, or strange voices may partially awaken a sleeping dog and result in twitching as well.

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