Do dragons dream? Maybe, according to new research that finds rapid eye movement (REM) and slow-wave sleep in a lizard, the Australian dragon, for the first time.
The discovery suggests that these phases of sleep may be more than 100 million years older than previously realized. The research suggests that REM and slow-wave sleep may have evolved in the amniotes, but the patterns found in the lizards studied may be even older, Laurent said. Amphibian sleep has been studied and sleep patterns have not been found, he said, but perhaps scientists need to check again.
In humans, REM sleep is closely associated with dreaming. So do Australian dragons dream? There’s no way to be sure right now. The answer may also depend on how you define dreaming. Under a strict definition in which dreaming requires higher cognition, the answer might be no. But if dreaming were defined as a replay of brain activity during sleep that resembles brain activity during wakefulness, lizards might well be dreaming.