Scientists have discovered that far more animals have dreams than previously thought. Rodents, including hamsters, can have dreams about memories and past experiences as they sleep.
Hamsters can have nightmares because they’re sentient animals that recall experiences and memories.
Also, rodents display symptoms similar to PTSD following stress or trauma. Given that they can remember things from their lives, these negative experiences are likely to manifest as nightmares.
Many hamsters scream when experiencing a nightmare. However, it’s unclear how hamsters dream. Some animals only see dreams as images, so they likely appear differently from ours, which are more complex.
Can Hamsters Have Bad Dreams?
Nature Neuroscience explains how scientists discovered that mice have dreams. Also, scientists could manipulate them by sending electrodes to various parts of their brains.
Given that mice and hamsters are rodents from the order of Rodentia, it’s reasonable to assume that hamsters can have dreams.
This is partly because hamsters move around a lot in their sleep. Their legs and whiskers twitch in response to brain activity, giving the impression that they’re dreaming.
However, hamsters move around in their sleep because they’re vulnerable prey animals.
Hamsters need to remain alert from predators, even while asleep, which means they move around relatively often to ensure they’re in a safe position. This doesn’t mean they’re not dreaming, though.
Hamsters are sentient animals, so they can recall memories and experience feelings like other mammals.
Furthermore, evidence suggests that rodents can experience some level of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although it’s not quite comparable to human PTSD. Specifically, PTSD involves reliving intrusive memories from traumatic events, which can manifest as nightmares.
According to Translational Psychiatry, rodents experience PTSD-like symptoms when exposed to stress. More studies are needed, but research suggests hamsters can have bad dreams.
While hamsters likely have nightmares, scientists don’t yet know whether they dream the same way as humans or see dreams as images.
What Do Hamsters Dream About?
Hamsters are likely to think about the following things while they’re asleep:
Running
When hamsters sleep, they frequently kick and twitch their legs as if they’re running. These movements are particularly common with hamsters, who spend lots of time on exercise wheels.
Also, hamsters are driven by their instincts to run away from predators. These worries can transfer to their dreams, manifesting as what we understand as nightmares.
Playing
Hamsters likely dream about playtime, remembering the sequence of events from when awake.
This is backed up by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which describes how researchers looked into the brain activity of rats running in mazes and found they fired the same neurons while asleep.
This occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is when mammals do most of their dreaming.
Predators
Hamsters must be on high alert for predators, even when sleeping.
Dreaming about predators is likely a stressful experience, so hamsters must have somewhere safe and quiet to sleep to feel protected. Providing bedding that’s 6+ inches is recommended.
Experiences
Less specifically, hamsters can dream about certain experiences when they sleep. These could be happy or trauma-related experiences, the latter of which would be nightmares.
Why Do Hamsters Scream in Their Sleep?
Sound is a crucial indicator of nightmares in hamsters. In particular, screaming is among the most alarming sounds hamsters make, indicating they’re scared and fearful of something around them.
Hamsters also scream to scare predators off. If your hamster screams while asleep, it feels threatened in its nest or has had a bad dream. The latter is common, particularly as hamsters are vocal creatures who make a vast array of noises while they sleep.
However, don’t assume that a hamster is experiencing a bad dream if it starts screaming in its sleep. Screaming indicates pain, so check the hamster over to ensure it hasn’t hurt itself.
Also, vocalization is sometimes a sign of a respiratory issue or disease. Prolonged screaming means something is amiss, so you’ll need to take the hamster to the vet for an examination.
Is It Bad To Wake Up a Hamster?
You may be tempted to wake your hamster up from a nightmare.
However, this is likely to do more harm than good. It’s unwise to wake up a hamster prematurely because its sleeping pattern is so different from ours, and it’ll suffer as a result.
Doing so risks the following problems:
Stress
Waking a hamster from a dream is likely to cause stress. Hamsters are vulnerable to stress because it causes harmful bacteria to multiply, increasing the risk of health conditions like Tyzzer’s disease.
Because hamsters are so small and fragile, stress commonly leads to death. However, while this sounds extreme, stress is unlikely to cause serious health problems if you only wake your hamster once or twice.
This may be necessary if you’re worried your hamster is in pain. Don’t make a habit of it, as you must preserve your hamster’s well-being by allowing it to sleep uninterrupted.
Sleep Deprivation
Hamsters are crepuscular, so they must sleep during daylight hours to conserve and build their energy.
Waking a hamster prematurely reduces the number of hours it can sleep, leaving it susceptible to sleep deprivation. This impairs a hamster’s ability to carry out daily tasks and affects memory function.
It can also throw a hamster’s sleep routine out of sync altogether. Therefore, waking your hamster is something you must avoid to keep them healthy.
Risk of Injury
If you wake a hamster from a bad dream before it’s ready to get up, it’ll be cranky and may bite you, even if it has never bitten you before.
This is a defense mechanism that hamsters use to protect themselves from predators.
Hamsters have strong, sharp, ever-growing teeth, meaning a bite may hurt and draw blood. Your hamster may even become wary of you, associating you with needlessly waking it up.
Even though hamsters likely have dreams and nightmares, they’re not well understood.
Many owners believe they’ve witnessed their hamsters dreaming in their sleep, so provide a comfortable environment with plenty of bedding it can use for a nest.
That way, if it does have a bad dream, it’ll feel protected once it awakens.
