How long do dogs sleep?

Almost every time you look at your dog, he is asleep. Have you wonder how much dogs sleep every single day ? Let's find out.

To understand dogs sleeping habits, we must first understand that their sleeping patterns are much different to those of us. Moreover their sleep requirements vary depending on their breed and size as well.
As a bonus we will check out what dog sleeping position means.

Sleeping time
The average amount of time for a dog to sleep in a day is between 12 and 18 hours. However, there are some different factors listed below that could affect your dog’s sleeping patterns. Even though every breed and even every dog is different. Have you ever noticed that when you are home, your dog may only be awake a few hours a day, but then when you take him to the car, buckle up him in his car bed and bring him on a trip somewhere, he can run and play all day without stopping?

The reason for such an unusual behavior is because dogs don’t have a regular sleeping pattern. There are 2 main stages of sleep in dogs. First - Slow-wave sleep (SWS), which is a lighter type of sleep with less brain activity and the second one - rapid eye movement (REM), which is a deeper type of sleep with higher brain activity.

Dogs spend between 8 and 12% of their sleep time in the so called REM while humans 20 to 25 %.

Similar to us, dogs have a favorite sleeping position. There are 4 typical sleeping positions.

Side sleeping – when a dog is sleeping on his side or belly with all four paws stuck out. Usually, this position is only for napping, but occasionally they will sleep like this for longer periods of time. This is the most common and comfortable position for a dog.

Next, back sleeping. One of the funniest positions to see. There could be two reasons for back sleeping of dog. The first possible reason dogs do this is to expose their belly. Place on a dog with little to no hair. Exposing it is one of the fastest ways to cool off. The second reason is because in back sleeping position all of the dog’s muscles are able to relax completely.

Curled in a ball – very common napping position. In order to hold this position, your dog must use his muscles. This is not a relaxed position by any means. But dogs can get up and begin move very quickly when sleeping in this position.

And the last one back to back or touching – either their owner or another dog – while sleeping shows attachment and affection to that person / animal.