By: Ellen Wang

Despite the intriguing fact that an octopus can have nightmares, it has still not been scientifically proven that they can even dream yet. However, video footage from Rockefeller University in New York shows Costello, an octopus, seemingly having a nightmare during its sleep. This would be an astounding breakthrough if now humanity could observe an intelligent being with as much brain capability as them.

According to the New York Times, Costello had begun crawling from the top of his tank to the bottom when he was supposedly sleeping, and researchers spotted this weird behavior and started to look closer. “Then he spun like a writhing cyclone. Finally, Costello swooped down and clouded half of his tank with ink. As the tank’s filtration system cleared the ink.” Eric Angel Ramos, a marine scientist, had noted his behavior as similar to trying to strangle the pipe to death.

This, according to Dr. Ramos, currently in the University of Vermont, was not typical behavior for an octopus to exhibit during its sleep. Other factors such as neurological condition may have also had an impact, as Dr. Magnasco said. The posture that was displayed was a defensive posture, as Costello was in the middle of an intense fight.

However, Tamar Gutnick, a neuroethologist at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, and her coworker, a marine behavior biologist Michael Kuba, decided that there was not enough evidence that Costello was indeed experiencing nightmares. First off, they pointed out that Costello had stomach parasites, and the defensive behavior may be of consequence to a parasite getting into its nervous system at the time since it died six weeks after the longest ‘nightmare’. Following that, these episodes may be related to stress or age, since other octopi did not display such severe symptoms during theirs.

But scientists can now link body patterning, behaviors, and brain waves to study if octopuses can dream. As Dr. Gutnick added: “You have to show that they have dreams before you think about nightmares.”