Why Do Dogs Wake Up So Easily

For a pet owner, it’s a great pleasure to see the little pooch sleeping silently. Its cuteness and sleeping behavior can be compared to a toddler, and both wake up easily. It may seem to you that it’s sleeping perfectly, but it’s not as peaceful as you see. You may find them doing various things while sleeping, and this is most likely acting out their dreams. Their deep sleep doesn’t last long, and even a little sound can wake them up immediately. Dogs wake up easily because of their sleeping pattern. Like humans, they sleep longer, but most of their sleeping time is spent in a stage where their brain and pulse activity slow down but remain active. Because of the nature of their sleep, they can wake up fast and also go to sleep in a few moments.

Why Do Dogs Fall Asleep So Fast

To answer this question, you need to be familiar with the sleeping pattern of a dog. It’s close to human sleeping patterns but different in some key areas. Firstly, there are transitions between the stages of sleeping. Not like humans, dogs take a little time to move from one stage of sleep to another. Secondly, both humans and dogs need a substantial amount of deep sleep. As the amount of a dog’s deep sleep is very low, only 10% of total sleeping hours, it compels the animal to fall asleep quickly. Finally, they need more sleep than humans to compensate for their lost REM.

Sleeping Stages for Humans and Dogs

Both humans and dogs go through four stages of sleep while sleeping. The following presents a short discussion of all the stages: 

• Stage 1: This is the lightest stage of sleep where you just get out of consciousness and lose control of your limbs. You might be aware of what’s happening around you, but it would seem like background noise.
• Stage 2: In this stage, you won’t have any awareness of your surroundings, pulse rate and brain activity will become slow. You will be asleep but not deeply. We need some more time to reach the stage where the brain moves to subconsciousness and processes the inputs it receives throughout the day.
• Stage 3: This stage is also known as the slow-wave stage. In this stage of sleep, our body functions at its slowest. Some of the key activities like heartbeat rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and breathing take place very slowly. You are completely out of consciousness at this stage, with no knowledge of what’s going on around you.
• Stage 4: This is the final, and the deepest level of sleep humans and dogs can have. Also known as the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage, this is when you are in a completely subconscious mind with an active brain to process all the events of the day.

From the sleeping stages above, most of a dog’s sleeping hours are occupied by stage two. This happens because of the dog’s natural sleeping pattern, and this is the main reason dogs can wake up fast when needed. As they spend only 10% of their sleep time in stage four, their bodies require longer hours of sleep to make up for the deficiency of deep sleep. Dogs go to sleep fast because they wake up frequently, don’t have enough deep sleep, and very often out of boredom and tiredness.

Why Does My Dog Wake Up So Early

Dogs’ natural sleeping patterns allow them to wake up fast, but that doesn’t always mean that a dog will wake up early. This can be a reason for waking up but not waking up early. There are several reasons behind dogs waking up early. It can happen for a single reason or a combination of reasons. You can figure out the main reason by considering some aspects.

5 Most Common Reasons Dogs Wake Up So Early

• Hunger: If the dog is accustomed to eating at a certain time every day, it will get up right before that time out of hunger. Once the dog is awake and needs to be fed, it will try to get you up. This is one reason, and another associated reason is changing a dog’s diet and diet time.
• Separation Anxiety: Like humans, dogs are very social. They expect to always receive love and affection from their owner and be with them. They can wake up sometimes out of anxiety. This anxiety can be created by various psychological, physical, and environmental factors like separation, fear, and aging.
• Need to Pee: It is one of the reasons dogs get up early in the morning. It doesn’t matter if it is a puppy or elderly, when a dog feels the need to pee, it will wake you up too and seek to go outside.
• Change in Routine: Normally, dogs love to cover their activity in a routine. You can expect your cute pup to behave normally once you start putting him into a routine. Abnormal behaviors like waking up early can be caused by a disruption in a routine. If a dog is accustomed to a certain time for sleeping, waking up, peeing, having food, and so on, the dog will seek to do the tasks at a routine time.
• Medical Conditions: Sleeping disorders in dogs may also happen on medical grounds. A dog may wake up early out of discomfort caused by illness, injury, or any other medical issues. To be sure if the dog is waking up out of discomfort, you should look for signs of illness, injury, or other medical grounds. If so, arrange a visit for the dog to a professional vet.

Apart from these, there might be several more issues that can wake up your dog early and create inconveniences for you. If you find it out of the medical grounds, don’t delay meeting a vet.

How to Make Your Dog Sleep Longer

We already know that dogs sleep longer than humans. Having that in mind, if you expect to have your dog sleep longer hours in the morning, the below points are for you: 

• Don’t let the daylight reach inside your dog’s sleeping place: As we know, dogs are descended from grey wolves. They used to live in the backcountry. Their inherited sleeping habits are aligned with the rise and set of the sun. That’s why you may find your dog waking up once it finds daylight. To get the dog to sleep longer, you can draw all the curtains in your home closed.
• Make the dog tired: If you used to take your dog for a walk in the morning every day, consider making it two times a day. Take the dog for exercise in the evening too. The second walk in the evening will help to burn some energy and make it tiring to sleep longer at night.
• Resist the dog when it tries to awaken you: Your dog may wake you up early and whine for food. Don’t leave your bed unless it’s an emergency. If the dog wakes up earlier than usual, make it understood that you won’t leave your bed until your regular rising time. Ignore your dog’s whine, bark, or any other act to get you up.
• Don’t feed them right after waking up: Wait at least 30 minutes. If you offer food immediately after getting up, your dog will take it as a wake-up time to have breakfast and will continue to rise early.

How Long Should Dogs Sleep

Like humans, dogs’ sleeping time and patterns vary based on several factors, such as breed, age, and the size of the dog’s body. So, there is no direct answer to the question of how long dogs need to sleep. The below comparison may help to extend your knowledge of this and nurture your dog to have a perfect sleep every day.

The first comparison presents average dog sleep hours by dog breeds –

SL. No.	Dog Breed	Average Sleeping Hours
1	American Staffordshire Terrier	8.71
2	American Bulldog	8.64
3	Great Pyrenees	8.61
4	Great Dane	8.59
5	Standard Labradoodle	8.55
6	Toy Poodle	8.51
7	German Shepherd Dog	8.22
8	Yorkshire Terrier	8.23
9	Australian Cattle Dog	8.27
10	Jack Russel Terrier	8.27
11	French BullDog	8.31
12	Beagle	7.82
13	Australian Shepherd	8.45
14	Boxer	8.25

Let’s have a look at the sleeping hours of dogs based on the age of the dog –

SL. No.	Dog Age	Sleeping Hours
1	Senior	9.59
2	Adult	9.52
3	Geratric	12.15
4	Young adult	11.65
5	Puppy	14.30

Finally, find below a comparison of dog sleep needs based on their size –

SL. No.	Dog Size	Sleeping Hours
1	Large	14 – 18
2	Medium	10 – 14
3	Small	14 – 16

How to Wake Up a Dog

There is a saying, “Let the sleeping dog lie.” If you have a pet dog, you need to follow this rule because forcefully waking up a sleeping dog may have serious consequences. Think about a nightmare you have gone through. How long has it taken you to wake up and realize it was a bad dream? You are safe. The same happens to a dog if you touch or shake the dog during its dream. If the dog’s dream is terrible, it may end with an unintended bite.

Sometimes, you may have to wake up your pooch. To avoid the dog’s sudden surprise and anxiety, you can just rouse the dog gently and keep speaking its name.

Should I Let My Dog Sleep Late Every Day

Dogs have their own sleeping needs. If they have enough sleep and lead their lives normally, there are no issues, no matter if the dog goes to sleep late at night or any other time. You may think about the health consequences for the dog. In this case, some dogs just do fine starting their day on their terms. If you find it unusual in your dog, you should consult a veterinarian. Apart from this, getting your dog’s daily activities aligned with yours and making a schedule can produce excellent results.

Why Do Dogs Wake Up in the Middle of the Night

As dogs sleep so lightly, your dog won’t sleep through the night, and the dog may wake and bark mid-night. Apart from this, dogs can wake up early and bark to use the bathroom, to have some food, or just to have your company. A dog can keep waking up early because of:

• Sleeping disorder in the dog; 
• Older dog waking up early; 
• Strange odor; 
• Anxiety; 
• Urinary or digestive problems; 
• Extreme Itchiness; 
• Joint pains, etc;

How to Treat Sleeping Disorders in Your Dogs?

If your dog has developed a sleeping disorder, before going for treatment, you should know why it has developed. A dog can suffer from various kinds of sleeping disorders, such as REM behavior disorder, narcolepsy, and insomnia. Your treatment should be based on that.

Your vet may prescribe medication like clonazepam, anti-anxiety drugs, and anticonvulsants for REM behavioral disorders. In the case of narcolepsy, some behavioral therapies are recommended. Insomnia treatment requires first determining what’s causing it and then focusing treatment on eliminating that.

FAQ

Why Do Dogs Get Happy When You Wake Up?

Dogs become happy to see you waking up because you are the only one who makes fun of them. You prepare the meal and feed the dog, you take the dog for a morning walk in a nearby park, and you do everything else for her. They become happy to realize that as you have woken up, it’s time you feed them and have all the fun they missed out on while you were sleeping.

Why Does My Dog Get Up Every Time I Move?

You may know that dogs’ sense of smell and hearing is much stronger than humans. As they spend most of their sleeping time in stage two, their strong sense allows them to wake up when listening to a little sound or recognizing that something strange is passing by. To protect the owner’s life and property, they can respond instantly in stage one and stage two levels of sleep.

Why Does My Dog Wake Me Up So Early?

Naturally, dogs’ sleeping cycles are aligned with those of nature. Once a dog is touched by daylight and wakes up at a later moment, it wakes up the owner. Apart from this, dogs can wake up early to pee, have food, and avoid separation anxiety, or because of illness, injury, or medical aspects.

How Do Get a Puppy to Sleep Longer in the Morning?

At first, you need to train your dog to sleep in a routine that allows a longer period of uninterrupted sleep in the morning. Apart from this, to avoid the dog waking up in the daylight, you can draw all the curtains in your home closed in the evening before going to bed, and make the dog tired with two walks and another exercise in a day.

Conclusion

As mentioned in the above discussion, the sleeping patterns of dogs and humans are almost the same, with only a few differences. As we already know that dogs spend more of their sleeping time in stage two, it’s natural that they would wake up with a little strange sound or noise. But their early waking up may have some other reasons that need to be examined. There might be issues working behind sleeping disorders in the dog. If you notice any of them, consult with a vet and arrange treatment.