Do you sleep with animals?
No, I'm not talking about people who do wild and crazy things in bed.
I'm talking about actual animals. Dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and maybe – bear with me – Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs.
Every few years, new research reveals that co-sleeping in humans and animals is either: a) There is a medical problem. b) Emotionally fulfilling. or c) confirmation that your mother is worried that she will not be able to have grandchildren. Because who in their right mind would share a bed with you and your damn Bernedoodle?
As someone who has always had issues with boundaries with pets, it never occurred to me to not allow them in my bed. My Poppy is a golden retriever who is almost 3 years old, and when I say I sleep with her, what I really mean is that she is going to sleep with me.
Most nights she starts on the hardwood floor and ends up at the foot of my bed. Sometimes in the morning I turn her over so her head is at the foot of the bed and I try to spoon with her. At 80 pounds, she is a solid and content creature to wrap around my arms. She will only tolerate this contact as long as I rub her belly. Otherwise, like my ex-husband, she is not a very cuddly person.
But I sleep better when Poppy is nearby. Her squeals alert me to squirrels running amok outside or malicious tree branches banging against my window in a storm. If an intruder were to break in during the night, Poppy's enthusiastic greeting and tendency to fall onto her back to get her belly rubbed might trip me up a few minutes before I call 911. do not have.
It's amazing how much time has been spent studying what happens when humans sleep with their pets.
There are two main areas of interest to researchers. That's the medical risks associated with bringing four-legged creatures into bed, and the effect it has on our sleep.
Although rare, the medical downsides can be significant.
Pets can bring dust and pollen into your bed, which can worsen allergies and asthma. In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an alarming paper called Zoonoses in the Bedroom by two California doctors who reviewed the medical literature. (A zoonotic disease is a disease that animals can spread to humans.) They compiled what amounted to a medical encyclopedia of rare but troublesome pathogens that can infect humans.
What I learned from reading this disturbing paper is that it's best not to let your pet lick its mouth or skin wounds. But, at least in the United States, sleeping with your pet is unlikely to make you sick, as long as your pet is healthy, clean, and properly flea- and tick-controlled.
To my knowledge, no one has studied whether it is dangerous for pets to sleep with humans. But I can tell you from experience that when we were kids, things didn't go well for the little guinea pig that her sister brought to her bed to sleep with.
There is so much research out there regarding its effects on sleep quality, much of it contradictory.
In a 2011 paper, “Human-animal co-sleeping: A jurisprudence-based assessment of the influence of dogs on women's nighttime movements,” researchers found that when dogs move around in bed, they also cause humans to move around in bed. However, humans “rarely” reported that their dogs disturbed their sleep.
In 2021, researchers from the Pediatric Public Health Psychology Laboratory at Concordia University in Montreal found that about one-third of children with pets sleep with their pets, which negatively impacts children's sleep. I discovered that there doesn't seem to be any.
In the same year, a variation on that theme was considered in Australia, where researchers investigated the sleep quality of adolescents who slept with pets, and found that pets do not have much of an effect because adolescents generally do not sleep well at first. discovered. place.
Last year, the Center for Scientific Information, which publishes the academic journal Human-Animal Interactions, published the results of an American study that investigated whether there was a correlation between pet ownership, sleep quality, and sleep disorders. In a multivariate logistic regression model, we looked at sleep quality issues such as, um, snoring, snorting, trouble falling or falling asleep, waking up mid-way or too early, restlessness, and leg cramps or twitching.
“Our results showed that owning a dog was associated with increased odds of suffering from sleep disturbances and disorders,” the researchers wrote. Owning a cat was associated with a higher chance of paw twitching. ” (I reached out to one of the authors of that paper to get a little more clarity about “leg cramps” but did not hear back by deadline.)
A few years ago, when I still had two cats, I don't remember my legs ever twitching in my sleep. But while I slept, Camille would often stand on my chest and stare at me like a hungry vulture, and Pat would often curl up on my pillow and look at me like a hungry vulture. I remember licking my hair.
Some experts advise against allowing any pets into the bedroom at night. are they serious? Try locking up your codependent pet overnight. See how well you sleep while your furry tufts howl in the hallway or throw themselves against the door.
