Do you sleep with your pet? Find out how that can affect you (and your pet)

(CNN) – In search of better sleep, people often ask if they should share their bed with a pet. Before we get to that, let’s take a moment to reflect on the other side:

Is sleeping with you good for your pet?

“I am delighted that we are reversing the issue,” said Dr. Dana Varble, veterinary director of the Veterinary Community of North America. “In general, it is very good that animals sleep with their people.”

Pets that share their human bedding tend to have a “higher level of trust and a closer bond with the humans in their lives. It’s a great show of trust on their part,” Varble said.

“Dogs and cats that are more closely associated with their humans gain additional health benefits, including an increase in beneficial neurotransmitters such as oxytocin and dopamine, the wellness hormones,” he added.

Is it only dogs and cats that benefit from human bedmates? Yes, Varble said, with “very, very few exceptions.”

“I have an owner who has a meticulously cared pot-bellied pig that sleeps at the foot of his bed,” he said. “He’s an indoor pig named Norbert – pot-bellied pigs are almost like dogs because they are so sociable.” (Norbert even has his own Instagram account).

Pros and cons for humans

With that important matter out of the way, let’s get to you: is sleeping with a pet good for you? Experts have traditionally said no because you may not get quality sleep.

“Animals can move, bark and interrupt sleep. Dogs (and cats) sleep is not continuous and will inevitably get up and walk on the bed, stepping on people. All that activity will lead to fragmentation of sleep.” said Dr. Vsevolod Polotsky, director of sleep research and professor in the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

These “micro-awakenings” that can happen without your awareness “are disruptive because they pull you out of deep sleep,” said Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “They have been associated with the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which can make sleep worse.”

That may be true for many of us, but recent studies have shown that keeping pets in the bedroom could be beneficial for some of us.

“People with depression or anxiety can benefit from having their pet in bed because the pet is a big pillow, a big blanket, and they can feel that this furry, cute and comfortable creature reduces their anxiety,” said the sleep specialist , Dr. Raj Dasgupta, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

The data collected in 2017 from the Mayo Clinic Sleep Medicine Center in Phoenix found that more than half of the pet owners seen at the clinic allowed their pet to sleep in the bedroom, with the majority finding that their pet was “discreet or even beneficial to to sleep”.

However, about 20% believed that their furry friends made their sleep worse.

Other 2017 study put sleep trackers on dogs and their humans to measure the quality of rest for both. People who kept their dogs in their rooms got a decent night’s rest (as do dogs), the research team found.

However, the quality of sleep decreased when people moved their dog from the floor to the bed.

Children can also benefit from sleeping with a pet. A 2021 study asked teens ages 13 to 17 to wear sleep trackers for two weeks and then undergo an advanced sleep test. About a third of the children slept with a pet, the study noted, which did not appear to affect the quality of their rest.

“In fact, those who sleep frequently [con sus mascotas] showed similar sleep profiles to those who never slept with pets, “the authors wrote.

“All of this suggests that having pets in the bed or bedroom is not necessarily a bad thing,” said Dr. Bhanu Prakash Kolla, a sleep medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota.

“There can be significant psychological comfort in having your pet around, which can help both initiate and maintain sleep,” Kolla said.

“However, if patients report that the pet’s movement or other activities disrupt their sleep, then we advise them to try to find alternative arrangements for it. [acostar a] the pet at night and see if that helps them sleep, “he added.

A setup for success

Sleeping successfully with your pet has a lot to do with how deeply you and your pet sleep, says clinical psychologist and sleep specialist Michael Breus, author of the book “Good Night: The Sleep Doctor’s 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health“.

“Dogs are usually good throughout the night, but cats can be very nocturnal,” Breus said, adding that another factor is how much “they both move, since the movement of the animal can wake up the human and vice versa.”

Pets, like people, can also snore and disrupt sleep, so be sure to take that into account, Breus said. Small cats and dogs often like to snuggle under the covers with their people, but that can raise their body temperature and disrupt their sleep. (The best temperature for sleeping is a little cold 18.3 degrees Celsius).

If you’re thinking of putting your furry baby to bed, Breus suggested that you try it for just a couple of nights, so as not to condition your pet, before deciding if it’s good for you.

Some of us should refrain

Despite new scientific studies, many of us still have to think twice before bringing our domestic dogs, cats, or pigs to our beds.

“It is particularly harmful in people with insomnia or in patients with other sleep disorders: patients with delayed phase of sleep (night owls) or even in people with sleep apnea, who wake up with the interruption of breathing and who later cannot return go to sleep, “Polotsky said.

Up to 30% of the American public suffers from insomnia and at least 25 million adults suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

“Insomniacs are the most susceptible,” Polotsky said. “Sleeping with pets will not necessarily predispose or precipitate insomnia, but it could perpetuate it.”

Each time your sleep cycles are interrupted it disrupts the brain’s ability to repair itself at the cellular level, consolidate memories, store new information, and prepare the body for optimal performance.

The “sweet spot” for adequate rest is when you can continuously sleep through all four stages of sleep four to six times each night. Since each cycle lasts approximately 90 minutes, most people need seven to eight hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep to achieve this goal.

Therefore, a chronic lack of solid rest affects your ability to pay attention, learn new things, be creative, solve problems, and make decisions.

It gets even darker: Studies find that people who experience frequent nighttime awakenings are at high risk of developing dementia or dying prematurely from any cause as they age.

Respiratory problems

There’s another reason snuggling with pets all night may not be good for your health. If you’re one of the millions of people with asthma, allergies, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sleeping with a hairball could turn into a nightmare.

“My asthma patients, my COPD patients, they always say, ‘Hey, doctor, don’t worry, my dog ​​doesn’t shed,'” said Dasgupta, who is also a pulmonologist.

“And I say, ‘Yes, but remember, the allergens are in the saliva, they are on the dog’s skin. So they will be exposed to allergens for eight hours a night and they will suffer from watery eyes and a stuffy nose. That, along with the movement of the animal could prevent him from sleeping well, ‘”he explained.

Some pets should not sleep in the family bed

Let’s go back to what’s best for your pet: When is it not a good idea for a furry friend to sleep with you?

“Obviously puppies or young dogs that are working with behavior problems, it may not be good for them to sleep with you,” Varble said. “If you have a dog with anxiety, we teach you that kennels are a safe space.”

“Kennels that have three sides make them feel like they just have to ‘protect’ themselves from one angle. We want to teach them that there is a safe place in their home,” he said.

And there are some pets, Varble said, that you should never invite to bed.

“I work with exotic pets and many of them have very specific health and safety requirements, including being in an enclosure,” Varble said. “So even though I know people who are very close to their ferrets and guinea pigs, they need to be in their enclosure at night for their health. Those are not animals that we would like to have in bed with us.”