Look at him: so relaxed, so comfortable... sleeping soundly in his beautiful removable Versailles crib (or any of the other perfect beds we have at ARISTOSHOP). Watching your dog sleep is one of life's little pleasures. Even more so than watching your partner sleep, because you don't run the risk of them waking up, catching you looking at them, and thinking ill of you... You might sometimes think he's getting a bit carried away (with his paws, sorry) because he spends almost more time sleeping than awake... But the truth is that after reading what we're about to tell you, you won't look at your dog the same way while he sleeps.
According to a study conducted by a team of Hungarian scientists, dogs can learn while they sleep. The study focused on analyzing the cognitive power of ARISTODOGS and reveals that they have the ability to learn while snoring in seventh heaven.
On this occasion, 15 dogs were the protagonists of this experiment. Before going to sleep, the scientists taught them certain commands in English —instead of Hungarian, which was the language they were familiar with. The scientists performed electroencephalograms on the dogs to analyze their brain activity during sleep (a three-hour nap, no less). And what was their surprise when they detected "sleep spindles" in the electroencephalograms of the furry friends.
Sleep spindles, also called sigma rhythm, are sinusoidal waves characteristic of the second phase of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep or synchronized sleep. They are generated in the thalamus and cerebral cortex and consist of bursts of ten to sixteen Hz, with a duration of between 0.5 and two seconds. This phenomenon is believed to be related to various functions, such as memory consolidation, learning, aging, and general intelligence.
This means that, as in humans and rodents, the brains of dogs are developing cognitive activity while they sleep, implying that during their sleep time they may be learning. Just like humans, females had more bursts per minute than males. In fact, about 30% of females learned the new words, compared to about 10% of males.
Without a doubt, it changes your perspective, doesn't it? Now we won't think that our dogs spend all day sleeping... because they might be assimilating what happened to them during the day or internalizing things they've seen or heard. So this study is not only aimed at better understanding what goes on in the minds and brains of dogs (and never better said), but also in ours.
Knowing, furthermore, that our ARISTODOGS have approximately 530 million cortical neurons and that these determine the richness of their internal mental state, it's not too far-fetched to think that our best furry friends are animal kingdom brainiacs, don't you think?
If you want to know about other interesting studies on the intelligence of ARISTODOGS, we invite you to discover why your dog understands what you say and how you say it. You'll surely be surprised!