Study Reveals Benefits of Sharing a Bed with Dogs
By Stephen Beech
Recent research indicates that dog owners who sleep alongside their pets may experience better sleep than expected. The study found a strong correlation between the nighttime movements of humans and their dogs, with both often waking at similar times.
Researchers from the U.S. and Canada monitored the sleep patterns of 25 humans and their 38 dogs over four weeks. Surprisingly, the presence of the dog didn’t significantly affect sleep duration or quality, even when owners felt their pets were disruptive.
Published in PLOS One, the findings showed that humans typically moved before their dogs during the night, suggesting that dogs might be the ones disturbed by their owners. The study concludes that while both parties influence each other’s sleep, it’s primarily the humans doing the disrupting.
Lavania Nagendran, a co-author from the University of Toronto, noted that many people reported feeling safer when sleeping with their dogs. However, the timings of their activities were often closely aligned, with human activity generally leading dog activity.
The research also highlighted that the number of dogs in a household correlated with poorer subjective sleep quality, despite objective sleep metrics remaining unaffected. The team plans to explore activity patterns in other canine groups to deepen their understanding of these dynamics.
Overall, the study reinforces the mutual influence between humans and their pets, indicating that our nighttime behaviors are interconnected.
