A Reuters news report indicates that there may be possible drawbacks to allowing your pet to sleep with you, including disrupted sleep.
Among pet owners surveyed at a sleep clinic, more than half said their non-human friends slept in their bedroom.
One in five pet owners described their animals as disruptive, but two in five perceived the pets as unobtrusive or even beneficial to sleep, the survey found.
Even though pets have the potential to jostle their humans or make noise that keeps people awake, the question of whether pets might contribute to sleeping problems isn’t one doctors regularly ask patients, said lead study author Dr. Lois Krahn, a specialist in sleep medicine and psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“Since commonly people with pets dismiss placing their pet outside of their bedroom at night, the question of whether having the pet on the floor, on the bed or curled up next to them becomes important in realizing the goal of helping them to sleep as well as possible with their pet,” Krahn said by email.
