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Sleep and Your Horse’s Health
03/23/2009
Sleep is our most important weapon in staying healthy. And it turns out, when it comes to horse health, it’s just as important.
Growing up as the daughter of a physician, I had to hear about sleep constantly. If I was sick, if I got angry, if I got a headache, my father ascribed it to a lack of sleep. Even today, if I get emotional and cry, he attributes it to fatigue. I would never admit this to my dad, but a majority of the time, he’s eight. Sleep is our most important weapon in staying healthy. And it turns out, when it comes to horse health, it’s just as important.
Last December, at the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Convention, Dr. Monica Aleman gave a paper on the importance of sleep for horse health. Just like humans, horse health requires the proper balance of sleep cycles throughout the day.
To achieve proper horse health, an adult horse must sleep 3-5 hours every day. Unlike human sleep patterns, which have 8 hours of continuous sleep, these 3-5 hours can be taken throughout the day as long as the majority are taken at night. Any interruption in the length of sleep can lead to horse health problems that affect activity levels, attitude, and quality of life.
Horse health sleep does have the same stages as their human counterparts. For humans, in Stage 1, a person is barely asleep and very drowsy. In stage 2, the sleep is very light. Stage 3 and 4, the body is relaxed, and slow wave sleep occurs. Then after stage 4, REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep starts, where dreams occur. To maintain proper horse health, a horse must follow a similar sleep pattern, only Stage 2-4 are all slow wave sleep, where the horse sleeps on his or her chest and belly, instead of sleeping on her side. Stage 1 for a horse is often performed standing up.
Another difference between human sleep stages and equine sleep stages is the muscle tension during the night. To be healthy, the average human goes through several hours of muscle paralysis and muscle relaxation, while equine muscles are tensed in a constant state of vigilance, always ready to kick or run. To achieve horse health, a horse only needs around 30 minutes of REM sleep a night, and for this, he or she must lie on his side.
In the case that the equine sleep cycle is disrupted, horse health problems occur. The first symptom of a horse health problem is (as with humans) a flagging energy level. The horse becomes sleepy during the daytime, and in severe cases, will collapse during the day into sleep (a type of narcolepsy). Another horse health sleep problem is cataplexy, a state where the horse is so fatigued his or her muscles collapse if he or she get over-stimulated.
If you are worried that your horse health problems are related to his or her sleep patterns, here are some things to look for:
-Recurrent cuts or scraps on the fetlocks and front knees
-Collapse during the day
-Flagging energy
These could be signs of environmental, emotional, chemical, or muscular horse health problems. Monitor your horse as he or she sleeps, and if nothing seems wrong, contact your veterinarian for more information.
