Anyone have any experience with sleep deprivation in horses and their subsequent falling while sleeping (diagnosis of two vets)? Any tricks to help a horse feel comfortable to lie down to sleep besides more bedding? I have her on a calming supplement as well.
I’ve seen two-- one was an older horse who just needed a bigger stall (he was basically in a tie stall). The other was a neurotic younger mare with a tendency to get super herdbound. She had been on solo turnout/ in a stall and when they switched her to 24/7 turnout with a quiet older horse and a big run-in shed she was fine.
Assuming you are pretty sure there’s no physical reason she’s not lying down, some other things to try-- make sure lights/ radio etc. are off as much as possible/ all night, switch neighbors to someone she likes, add neighbors if she doesn’t have them (or take them away altogether), switch to a quieter stall with less going on nearby, make sure there aren’t any bangers/ cribbers/ weavers/ weird noises etc. disturbing her. If you think this is a relatively recent development did something change? Could she see her buddies before and now can’t? Was she on night turnout and sleeping in the field? Also I would definitely treat for ulcers since I’m sure she’s stressed.
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She is sound. She has had this issue in both small and oversize (12x24) box stalls. It doesn’t seem to matter if other horses are in sight or not. I have not tried bedding other than shavings on rubber mats. She was treated for a month with omeprazole.
She has scars on knees and fetlocks, so I think this is a longer term problem than just the five months I’ve owned her. She does sometimes scrape her head 
I wish I had suggestions for you. I have an OTTB who I tried on 24/7 turnout one summer. He dropped a ton of weight, wasn’t himself, and one day nearly toppled over in the cross ties. He was exhausted. Once we went back to bringing him in overnight he went back to his old self.
THere have been a couple of threads on this. One suggestion was a sand pile on a sloped area - horse had difficulty getting up and needed the slope. Sand was for comfort and flexible shape. And as other poster said some need a “guard” horse so that their horse felt relaxed enough to sleep.
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My horse went through a phase of sleep deprivation at a previous barn I kept her at. She would start falling asleep while being groomed, almost buckling at the knees. Never fell over as she always caught herself in time, and she was fine to ride because doing things kept her awake, but it was disconcerting. She also lost a lot of weight. I couldn’t definitively tell you a cause, but my theory is that the barn in question was small and when the doors were shut, it let it absolutely no light, not even a sliver, like being in a cave. The barn owners would shut the door in the evenings if no liveries were around or they were going out, sometimes before it got dark outside, so the horses could be in pitch black from 6 or 7pm until morning. My theory is that this sensory deprivation made her too nervous to sleep properly. I can’t imagine any prey animal likes this. The problem went away when I moved her to a different barn, one with lots of natural light whether the doors were shut or not.
I have read herd dynamic has a lot to do with why this happens. My horse in particular was moved away from the herd leader…and he now has equine sleep deprivation. Scarred fetlocks, hocks and hips from falling down. If you have the option, I would personally try her in another turnout arrangement to see if that helps. My horse has self inflicted enough injuries to himself and has been on anti inflammatories enough times that I know his isn’t pain related.
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I have no idea if this will help.
Could you try bedding her stall with peat moss? It makes a yielding bed, and if kept up it stays pretty even in depth throughout the day and during the night.
The only time I used peat moss as a bedding was when I had a weanling pure Arab colt in my backyard in Charlotte, NC. He lived in the hub-bub of the city (after being on an isolated farm) and never seemed to have sleep problems, at least I never saw any signs of any problems. His only turnout was my rather small back yard. He had only a dog for a companion. There were NO horses around as no one else was crazy enough to keep their horse in their backyard in my neighborhood.
Since the peat moss is so soft there is a greatly reduced chance of injury when the horse “collapses”, and the act of lying down may feel more comfortable. Plus this bedding absorbs the urine so well that there is little ammonia smell.
If you end up needing to bank up the bedding against a stall wall the peat moss will stay together better.
I bought my peat moss in bales at my local garden center in the city. Around a bale gave a wonderful, soft bed and I did not have to add much bedding during the week. If you know someone with a garden they may cheerfully take your used bedding (my next door neighbor asked me to pitch it over our fence, he had a beautiful garden!)
Also recommended was poultry peat, probably not in bales (?), but I could never find a source to buy it. The garden center stuff was quite adequate for my colt’s comfort.
Good luck in finding solutions!
My gelding did this. I could never isolate what was making him feel uncomfortable enough to avoid sleeping. I moved him to another barn and found him sound asleep on the ground the next day. He hasn’t had a problem since. I’d say it’s likely an environmental change that’s created the situation. Did new horse come in or leave? Any motion detection lights affecting her? Did the hierarchy change in her herd?
there have been extensive threads to this distressing (to the owner) condition. Boarding barns that specialize in retirement horses see this a lot and put some protection on the front of the fetlocks.
My own mare was like this, but she rode out fine anywhere, anyplace.
Do not leave a horse alone tied up in crossties, or to the trailer, etc.
I knew a mare who had the classic “fall alseep on crossties” syndrome. She always refused to lie down in her stall, but would sometimes lie down when turned out. I always wondered if she had some bad history in a stall–lay down and got cast? bad barn before we got her?
My last horse did this. In his case, I believe the cause was neurological and degenerative. We did xray his back late in the process and discover that he had severe kissing spines but I do believe it was caused by the constant collapsing of his front end over and over. Very sadly we had to euthanize him as his condition was progressive.
2 suggestions: 1) Get a camera on him asap. If no wifi in the barn, buy a wifi hotspot from some place like Best Buy and buy a month of data. Then buy a Nest camera or one of the cheaper knockoffs. I hear Arlo is a good one. Make sure it has night vision and that it will save the video so you can review it later. Also make sure that after you set everything up, turn the video resolution to as low as you can manage while still being able to see your horse. Video eats TONS of data. I needed to re-up my data after about 3 weeks but it was totally worth it. See what’s actually happening to your horse overnight. This is THE most helpful thing I did.
- Send video clips to your vet. If not enough interest from your vet, ask for a referral to the Equine Neurology department at UC Davis. https://compneuro.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/research/equine-sleep-and-sleep-disorders
They are doing more research into equine sleep disorders than anyone else.
Good luck. It’s an awful, awful condition.
I had a gelding that did this near the end of his life. It turned out to be the first noticeable symptom of an intestinal tumor; it was literally too painful for him to either lie down or get back up, so he just stood all the time and only catnapped.
I’m not suggesting that your horse has a tumor, mind, just that pain was a major factor in mine and, until he started colicking from it, we had no idea that there was anything wrong aside from the “narcolepsy”.
It might be worth having a vet do a complete exam to rule out pain.
