The Importance Of Sleep

We hear it all the time, sleep is so important, if you don’t get a good night’s sleep you’ll suffer! Trust me, as an insomniac, I know all too well how important a good night of sleep is, but one thing that is often overlooked is how vitally important sleep is for our canine companions.

“Sleep, and enough of it, is the prime necessity. Enough exercise, and good food and enough, are other necessities. But sleep – good sleep, and enough of it – this is a necessity without which you cannot have the exercise of use, nor the food.” – Edward Everett Hale

Oh how true that is. For us to function, and I mean really function, we need sleep. The same is true of our dogs. Without enough sleep, they will struggle with their emotions, mood and physical ability. Sleep is a fundamental need for our dogs. Let’s think of it in a few different ways.

An internationally recognized list of the Five Animal Freedoms is as follows:

• Freedom from Hunger and Thirst: Providing ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigor.
• Freedom from Discomfort: Ensuring an appropriate environment, including shelter and a comfortable resting area, with adequate temperature, noise levels, and access to natural light.
• Freedom from Pain, Injury, or Disease: Preventing or rapidly diagnosing and treating pain, injury, or disease through prevention, early detection, and prompt veterinary care.
• Freedom from Fear and Distress: Ensuring species-specific conditions and treatment that avoid mental suffering, and providing a stress-free environment.
• Freedom to Express Normal Behavior: Allowing animals to engage in natural behaviors, such as standing up, lying down, turning around, grooming, and stretching their limbs, without restriction or hindrance.

These above mentioned freedoms are essentially a foundation for animal welfare standards that are a guiding principle list detailing the care and treatment of animals worldwide. Notice how high up on that list sleep is. “Shelter with a comfortable resting area, adequate temperature, noise levels and access to natural light”. No, it doesn’t explicitly say ‘sleep’ but it does describe what many of us wish for our bedrooms to be like.

So, we’ve established that legally, this is a right for all animals to have. But what benefits does sleep have for our dogs?

It is noteworthy to mention that in addition to improved physical health, dogs who get sufficient sleep also benefit from a better mental state, it can help regulate emotions, reduce anxiety and stress and has positive effects cognitively, with studies showing that dogs who get enough sleep after training sessions and who experience REM sleep actually learn far better and retain information exceptionally well.

Reduced cortisol, boosted immune systems and behavioural benefits are just a few snapshots of how incredible sleep is for your dog. But a question still remains, how much sleep does your dog need?

A lot of behaviour problems stem from overtired dogs, people often complain that their dogs are grumpy when they wake them, even though they seem to always be asleep. It may surprise you to learn that most adult dogs require anything between 12-14 hours of sleep per day. Puppies and senior dogs require even more sleep, puppies need enough sleep to grow up healthy, and geriatric dogs need enough sleep to regain their energy as they slow down and mellow with age. To break it down, I have this handy list below:

• Puppies need: 18-20+ hours of sleep per day.
• Adult Dogs need: 12-14+ hours of sleep per day.
• Elderly dogs need: 16-18+ hours of sleep per day.

Of course, all dogs are individual, some may require less sleep than others and vice versa, but the key point to take away with you today is to ensure you are doing everything you can to help your dog achieve optimal sleep. Some things you can do to encourage this are:

• Keep to a consistent routine
• Meet all your dogs physical needs
• Meet all your dogs emotional needs
• Provide a comfortable, quiet place to rest
• Keep that area a comfortable temperature
• Utilize calming techniques, i.e. – soothing music

If natural remedies like dog safe aromatherapy or supplements aren’t helping and your dog is still struggling to have good quality sleep despite your best efforts, it might be time to seek a veterinarian for advice, your dog may have underlying issues that is causing them to sleep too much or too little.

In conclusion, if your dog has had a big day and needs to sleep, let them rest and maybe take a nap too.

Carefully researched and written by:

Becky Osborne

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