The average amount of daily rest (lying down relaxing, dozing and sleeping) that most dogs require is about 17 hours. Rest and relaxation is important to the management of biological and emotional stress as it allows the body to recover from releases of ‘stress’ hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. Whilst the release of these and other substances in response to stress is normal, the levels can build up and become abnormal if the body is denied sufficient time to rest and recover. Dogs suffering from long-term stress often display exaggerated behaviour, and are more prone to aggress because stress lowers emotional and impulse thresholds ~ in other words, as well as developing compulsive behaviour, stressed dogs are more likely to overreact in certain situations, react with less and less provocation each time, or react impulsively.Quality sleep is vital to the dog's psychological and physiological well-being. During sleep, and especially at night, an important neurohormone called melatonin is released into the body from the pineal gland. Melatonin helps to regulate the sleep-wake cycle. This means that not only it is needed to promote quality sleep, sleep is required for its production. Melatonin also protects the body's cells and strengthens the immune system.
It is so important to provide a dog with its own comfortable, resting place in a quiet area of the house where it can go and relax and not be disturbed, during the daytime and at night. Based on research into human sleep and dream patterns, I believe it's also important not to wake a dog when it is in what is known as REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement), which in dogs is often characterised by a combination of flickering eyelids, bodily twitches, yipping, growling and 'sleep running'. Dream-sleep studies have shown that human subjects repeatedly woken up at the REM stage commonly experienced feelings of fear and paranoia, and after only a few nights of dream-sleep disturbance, they become increasingly ill-tempered and depressed. What follows REM sleep is a vital, secondary, 'silent' dream-sleep phase that appears to counteract the effects of the emotions experienced during REM sleep. So please ... let sleeping dogs lie! From: What Dogs Really Need "
I tried Melatonin with both Revo and Minnie to see what effect it would have on their behavior as it has some anecdotal success for anxiety specifically thunderstorm anxiety and separation anxiety. It's considered generally safe and worth trying - just to see if it has any effect so that you have something up your sleeve should you have a situation where your dog might need calming. It had no noticeable effect on Minnie but seemed to have some effect on Revo and I used it whenever I began to increase exposure to triggers. I felt that melatonin over a few days tended to soften his reactions somewhat- but had no further benefit after a few days.
Dogs are crepuscular ie they are most active at dawn and dusk- so those are the two times they shouldn't be sleeping and preferably are going for long walks, playing tug and fetch and ending in a hearty meal. Being active during these natural peak times for them ensures that they are resting/sleeping the rest of the time.
