I have also been wondering how ferrets can manage to sleep as long as
they do without being beset by an abundance of (bad) dreams.
 
I have learned that, if I sleep excessively, I spend more time in REM
sleep, and have some of the most disturbing dreams then.  Likewise, when
I spent a number of weeks in the wilderness, I found myself also sleeping
an inordinate amount of time, because I was in a valley and waited for
the sun to clear the ridge to warm things up, and had to retire early
when it past the opposite ridge, due to darkness.  That, coupled with
the sudden loss of daily stimulus that living in society provided, caused
me to experience a form of "sensory deprivation".  I experienced THE
weirdest, most disturbing dreams that I have ever had in my whole life!
Dreams SO bad, that I would stay awake for at least a full day
afterwards.
 
So, I have been wondering if the ferrets experience the same things?  I
doubt it, because they don't appear to have nightmares; they don't seem
to fear sleep, and are zonked 10 minutes after being put back in the
cage.
 
I would expect that, since they do sleep so much, that they don't spend
as much time in REM sleep that we humans do.  If they did, I would expect
the dreams to drive them nuts!  Granted, they don't have as elaborate
dreams as *we* do, but one would expect what few fears they do have, to
torment them as they slept (If Bart has bad dreams, they would probably
be about the vacuum; that's about the only thing I know of that scares
him).  I would think that their dreams are much simpler, which might be
a safety mechanism to prevent excessive (bad) dreaming.
 
Gary
[Posted in FML issue 4303]