Do they know what dreaming is? Do they know that they are dreaming in every dream?
Hmm… I’ve always wondered that. But I have no idea… and I think there might be no way to figure it out for sure!
How do you suppose this can even be done?
Very interesting idea. It’s unlikely, however I’d imagine it’s at least possible for some type of animal.
Animals might not really have a consciousness as far as we know - And I really don’t think it is possible to lucid dream without a consciuosness. In other words - every single dream they have is a full control lucid dream [might even know they are dreaming] but they don’t go around taking over the world in it, they just do whatever it is they do at normal life.
Just my two pennies.
Ive always had this feeling that animals perceive reality in a more organic way than most modern humans… more like that of our tribal human ancestors, WE are animals after all, but we’ve grown to be so separate from our natural surroundings, unlike the rest of Earths creatures.
Its interesting when you look at humans that still live in ancient tribal ways like some aboriginal and african and south american tribes, whom very much exist in a more primal even animalistic way. We see that their perspective of themselves and their people in relation to their environment is very different from the majority of our human race, in that they dont seem to have a sense of the “individual”, rather they perceive their existence only as being part of the collective of the living world around them, including their tribe and all the plants, animals, earth and environment… Like the way animals appear to perceive the world. In this sense their consciousness functions as a collective as well… they have total awareness that everything they do affects the Whole… In these cultures there is usually a large emphasis on the necessity and usefulness of dreaming in the tribe, consulting their dreams nightly for information the tribe needs for hunting, planting, harvesting, ritual, ceremony and so on. They often describe the dreamspace or dreamtime as being a state of ultimate awareness, having access to infinite knowledge and information of past present & future, the Source or womb of creation, as the collective consciousness of all things, christ consciousness etc…
Sounds like a very Lucid form of dreaming to me…
I think animals dream like this…
I can tell when I watch my kitty sleep…
She is enlightened 
Oh, I really do disagree with that. Animals are very conscious! All animals have the ability to make decisions, my dog certainly does (“Shall I go to my mistress and get a treat, or investigate that funny looking stick over there?”)
Elephant certainly have a consciousness, they are able to recognise themselves in mirrors, they mourn the loss of a family or friend, the list goes on. If that doesn’t show conscientious thinking then I’m not sure how else you want people to prove it.
Here’s the link to the mirrow study.
news.nationalgeographic.com/news … hants.html
If you still disagree… well, I’m plenty willing to argue for the other side, because, well, they can’t speak human… grins
Personally I don’t think we’ll know, I believe they dream, but if they could understand an abstract concept like what a dream was, I don’t know. Perhaps they understand it, but in a way different to us, It’s probably mostly guessing.
There was a topic about this here
They do dream, that is known I believe.
Sometimes you can tell when a dog is dreaming cause it will sort of act like it’s running or growl a little bit in it’s sleep. Kinda funny to watch.
yeah i agrreee animals have consciousness, cuz they have a brain and are alive. so yeah. and i’ve heard they have dreams too, especially dogs. i mean they are spirits too so it might be possible.
It’s been shown that all mammals (with the notable exception of the spiny echidna) enter REM while asleep. Whether they ever have LDs is another matter.
I think I read somewhere awhile ago about these scientists who hooked up a sleeping rat with electrodes or something, put some food up to it’s nose, and interpreted the brain waves, which showed that the rat was dreaming about the same food being held up to it’s nose. The definetly do dream, but if they’re aware, then they probably wouldn’t really have anything they want to do, or realize their potental.
Animals do dream, maybe they even become lucid but I don’t know about that.
My dog sometimes when asleep try’s to run or sometimes cries (The sound dogs make when sad or hurt).
My cat, however, almost never really sleeps, always on her guard (apparently almost as paranoid as I am ), but when she does fall asleep then she sometimes snorrs or meows.
I think animals probably dream, but kicking in their sleep does not necessarily indicate dreaming. If I am remembering correctly, I read that sleep walking in humans does not occur during REM sleep and isn’t related to dreaming. I still believe animals dream, but I doubt they can understand what a dream is, thus I don’t believe they can lucid dream. How can you know your dreaming if you don’t know what a dream is?
If an animal remembers it’s dreams and compares them to real life, it could realize that one of the lives it lives is false.
Many animals such as rats, cats, monkeys, elephants, etc. have been shown to have REM sleep and therefore almost assuredly dream.
I’d have to say that i’m in the same camp as tkrulewich; I find it hard to believe that a cat or some such animal knows what a dream is well enough that it can ever realize its dreaming. I do think we could say with reasonable confidence that if animals have lucid dreams it is on a very infrequent basis much like humans that don’t try as I think it is HIGHLY improbable that animals make conscious attempts to have lucid dreams.
Perhaps once they realize what dreams are, they have them naturally.
right now, there’s only one animal fellow we know who’s capable of comunicating with us, and i highly doubt that asking him whether or not he has lucid dreams is anywhere near research priority.
Well, I guess it could be possible that the animal realises that is isn’t real life. They wouldn’t know it was a dream, They don’t have the knowledge capabilities. However at some points I can see that the animal knows that it isn’t real life, but simply does not know what it is.
My 2 cents. 
I wouldn’t be surprised if elephants, orangutans, and dolphins are able to LD. They’re all quite intelligent and perhaps if they have a particularly vivid dream and see something odd, they may think of the possibility that they’re dreaming.
That’s assuming they understand the concept of dreaming, for all we know, they might not remember any of their dreams at all.