So you sleep with your dog in your bed but your neighbor keeps theirs in a dog bed near their back door? Who is to say what’s right and what’s wrong, it’s a personal choice. However having the positives and negatives laid out before you make a choice is important. Today we are sharing the upside and downside of sleeping with pets.
The downside of sharing your bed with pets
Sleeping with your pets isn’t always the best idea. Insomnia and difficulty staying asleep at night can be caused by keeping pets being in the bed. Animals move, make noise, and take up space during the night. Even if you aren’t waking up at every little movement, your circadian rhythm is probably getting out of sync and you are most likely not hitting the deepest level sleep. Not getting enough sleep can produce a multitude of health issues and hinder productivity and attentiveness.
Animals can also carry sicknesses that their owners could catch if they are in constant contact. So sleeping with your pets can easily spread sickness throughout the family if you are always allowing your pets to sleep with you. According to a 2011 study there may even be a possibility of attracting zoonotic diseases by allowing your pets on your bed. Having Fido on the bed when you have bad allergies and/or asthma could worsen your symptoms and hinders your body from getting proper relief to recover from the day.
The upside of sharing your bed with pets
Over half of dog and cat owners sleep with their beloved pets besides them, so if you can’t bring yourself to kick the little rascals off the bed at night you are not alone. The Mayo Clinic surveyed 150 patients at its Center for Sleep Medicine in Arizona and learned that 74 individuals who lived with pets, over than half allowed their pets to sleep with them. 41 percent (of the 56 percent that allowed their pets to sleep with them) stated that their pet did not hinder their sleep or their pet improve sleep by giving the owner(s) warmth, contentment, or relaxation. Animals can bring us comfort, happiness, security, raise our oxytocin levels, and lower our stress levels. Individuals who didn’t have a partner or slept alone most nights stated that having a pet in their bed gave them a sense of companionship and love at night. Dogs and cats are the perfect cuddle partner!