Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
Confession: I'm jealous of my dog, DJ. Not because the women fawn all over him, or that he's got a full head of hair, or that he's bold and fearless. Nay, nay, nay - I'm jealous because my dog sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. Half his life is spent in slumber.
DJ sleeps in the morning, he naps during the day (while allegedly on the job as Meadys' greeter) and at night he curls up next to my son and snoozes some more. No wonder the dog's a hyperkinetic mess of energy when he's actually awake.
And while sleeping is one of my great passions in life - not just because it's free, I don't sleep enough. l'm a night owl; that's when I come alive. In fact, according to 23andMe, I'm 16.7% bat.
But here's the thing about sleep and why all dogs sleep so much. The REM part of sleep is when the battery gets recharged. For humans, that's about 25% of their sleep, but for dogs it’s a mere 10%. Since dogs doze off and on frequently throughout the day and often in short stretches, they don't benefit from the same type of quality REM sleep that most of us enjoy. That’s why dogs need so much sleep.
A dog’s intermittent napping, particularly during the day, is very similar to that of the wolf which is an active nocturnal hunter. Interesting, eh? Always honor the wolf embedded in your dog.
Sigh. It's been another long hard day and of course I'm writing this after midnight because that's when the clarity of my thoughts run deep, my synapses fire away in reckless abandon. I thrive in this fleeting moment of the scribe at his craft. Wouldn't trade it for anything...anything that is but golden slumber.
And that's why I'm still jealous of my dog.
