Rostrum movements in desynchronized sleep as a prevalent manifestation of dreaming activity in Wistar rats

Considering that eye movements express visual dreams in humans and are prominent during desynchronized sleep in cats, monkeys and birds, rostrum movements were investigated in a macrosmatic species, the rat, to assess the hypothesis that, expressing olfactory and tactile (involving the vibrissae) dreams, they would prevail over eye movements. Desynchronized sleep episodes lasted 148.8 +/- 12.4 s, rostrum movements lasted 80.7 +/- 6.9 s and eye movements occurred during 40.4 +/- 3.9 s, all in accordance with the original hypothesis.