Should You Be Sleeping With Your Dog or Cat?

Healthy sleep is the most important thing you can do for your brain and body to maintain a healthy life. While nutrition and exercise are also key, sleep is the best predictor of lifespan.

Proper sleep raises our body’s immunity against viral infection and protects against higher risks of cardiovascular disease [heart attacks and strokes], type II diabetes, obesity, cancer, early onset of Alzheimer’s disease, depression, irritability, stress and anxiety.

Restful sleep also enhances cognitive performance, including memory, creativity, reaction-time, critical thinking and even athletic performance. That is a pretty good bargain for a pleasurable healthy experience with little effort on our behalf!

One way to ensure good sleep is to try sleeping with your best friend—your pet dog, cat or  any other four legged being. How many of us enjoy sharing our bed with a 4-legged family member? A good way to ensure good sleep is to sleep with your best friend, whether it is your dog, cat, or any other four-legged creature. Please do not forget to provide our furry companions with the loving care they deserve, and secure pet insurance for when necessary.

Benefits of Sleeping With Your Dog or Cat

Statistics show around 41 percent of surveyed pet owners who allowed their pet to sleep in the bedroom or on the bed said that they did not find their pet disruptive, and they even reported sleeping better. Here is why:

• A big advantage of sleeping with your 4-legged family member is they help with your emotional wellbeing. A pet offers you a feeling of companionship leading to decrease in feelings of loneliness.
• Pets lower your stress level, and ease depression. Studies suggest that the presence of pets increases the flow of oxytocin, the love chemical.
• Sleeping with your dog gives you an increased sense of security, especially for women.
• Pets promote coziness and warmth, and not just for humans. Our pets love to be next to their human companions and it reduces their anxiety that might be triggered by seeing animals on your TV screen [scores of TV commercials show pets], hearing environmental noise and having reactions to thunder and lightning. Win-win for both you and your faithful animal companions.

A Few Disadvantages

One disadvantage of sleeping with your fur baby is that it could negatively affect your love life, so you will probably want to have an alternative plan in place for them to sleep where they feel safe and you aren’t distracted. Thank god most animals can’t talk [beware the smart observant parrot!]

If you have allergies, co-sleeping with your pet might trigger or aggravate your condition.

While some people sleep better with a dog or cat because they feel calmer and more secure, others might have their sleep interrupted by pets moving around or snoring. So If you are a light sleeper, you might not enjoy your pet sleeping on your bed next to you.

Some pets—a large dog, for instance—may cause disruptions to your rest just by simply taking up a large space in your bed or trying to sleep on top of you.

Ideal Setting for Sleeping With Your dog or Cat

The ideal bedroom temperature for you and your pet is between 65 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Also your sleeping quarters should be quiet and dark. A white noise generator can be peaceful and mask a noisy environment, but make sure the gadget is one that generates white noise rather than just playing a tape recording [which can interrupt sleep].

Keeping an air purifier in the bedroom will cut down on dust, dander and dog hair. Spraying lavender on pillows and sheets will aid your sleep and mask pet odors.

While there some sleep disturbances to humans, dogs and cats are just as much at risk when it comes to co-sleeping with their owners. People readjust and move around in their sleep without fully waking, so it could be dangerous to your 4-legged friends if you were to roll over on them or smother them with your blankets and comforters.

On the other hand, if your dog has some jerky leg movements, eye movements and maybe even some whimpering or barking, and cats show whisker twitching, rest assured they might be in REM sleep, the stage in which dreams most often occur in humans and animals.

Sleep well and sweet dreams!