How Much Should A Dog Sleep?
If you are the guardian of a domestic dog, you may have ever wondered the following: how much should a dog sleep? That this doubt arises is something very common because, no matter how active these animals are at times, they spend most of the day lying down or directly in the world of dreams.
How many hours of sleep is too much? At what point do you start worrying about the animal’s health? In the following lines we try to answer these questions in a simple and concise way. Do not miss it.
How much should a dog sleep without being worrying?
According to the prestigious canine association American Kennel Club, dogs spend 50% of their time sleeping, 30% relaxing and only 20% fully active. This may seem excessive but, unlike humans, these animals have a polyphasic sleep pattern.
This means that they divide the sleep phases throughout the day, instead of concentrating them in a specific time interval like we do. For example, as indicated by the NIH, human beings take between 70 and 90 minutes to enter the REM phase – the phase where we dream – and we remain in it for 25% of the rest.
On the other hand, dogs take 10 minutes to enter the REM phase and only stay in it 10% of the time. As a consequence, they wake up and see their sleep disrupted much faster, requiring more compensatory rest hours.
Despite this, dogs have a biological clock that allows them to fall asleep more easily at night than during the day. While we rest for 6-8 hours a day, dogs only fall asleep in 45-minute intervals. All these data underscore that our way of conceiving sleep is not applicable to the canine world.
Hours vary by age
As a general rule, adult dogs sleep an average of 12-14 hours throughout the day. Larger dogs, due to a more demanding metabolism, can rest for up to 18 hours a day. In any case, these values vary according to the age of the dog, as we see in this list:
- Puppies can sleep up to 20 hours a day. They are in a very vulnerable stage and require uninterrupted rest to develop properly.
- As we have said, an adult dog sleeps 12 to 18 hours a day. As a general rule, the bigger the dog, the more time it will spend lying down.
- Senior dogs also sleep 12 to 18 hours a day. Despite this, they usually require longer rest times than a young dog. Therefore, they can spend less than 20% of the day active and more time simply lying down or enjoying the tranquility.
- Overweight dogs and some specific breeds tend to rest more than others.
For example, dogs that have been genetically selected for hunting or work are often more alert than the rest. Of course, the physical activity of a husky is in no way comparable to that of a pug. Each dog is a world because, in addition to the genetic variability of the breed, there is an individual predisposition.
Boredom and other pathologies: confusion with rest
When asked how much a dog should sleep, we can agree that the average is placed in about 12-14 hours. In any case, this value is difficult to quantify, since it is impossible to know how many hours of the night the dog remains active and how many it sleeps. Therefore, it is best to offer you encouragement whenever you need it.
Rest is often confused with boredom. Perhaps a dog is inactive because he really needs to rest, but more than likely he is simply listless from lack of stimulation. There are multiple olfactory and training games that will activate your dog in the middle of any nap.
Beyond this, it is also true that excess rest can be a sign of some pathology. Among the most common, we find the following:
- Depression: As in humans, depression causes major disruptions in the sleep cycle. This is usually accompanied by general decay, lack of appetite and anxiety.
- Hypothyroidism: When the thyroid gland does not produce enough hormones, the animal’s metabolism slows down.
- Diabetes: In addition to inactivity, canine diabetes is also often accompanied by significant weight loss and general weakness.
On the other hand, a dog can rest more hours than normal due to any viral or bacterial infection. The body is fighting off pathogens, so it has to reserve all its energy for it.
As you may have read, a dog generally sleeps about 12-14 hours a day. Do not worry if your dog rests for a long time, because their sleep cycles are very different from ours. In any case, if this rest is accompanied by certain clinical signs such as the ones we have mentioned, it is best to go to the vet.
