Today, more pet owners let their fur babies sleep in their beds for added comfort and to spend quality time with their dogs. Health studies show that co-sleeping with dogs improves owners’ health and well-being, and dogs feel loved and appreciated.
From the warmth of your dog sleeping close by to the added relaxation for you both, there are several terrific reasons to let your dogs sleep in your bed without causing sleep disturbances for you or your partner.
1. Reduces Depression
Psychological research has proven that depression symptoms are less frequent the more pet owners interact with their dogs. Regardless of age, pet owners experience fewer bouts of loneliness or anxiety when spending time with their dogs.
In addition, if they bring their dogs along for walks, exercise, and leisure activities, pet owners get more natural oxytocin and remain calmer and more relaxed.
2. Promotes Theta Brainwaves
Sleeping next to your dog improves theta brainwaves. While these brainwaves aren’t associated with the deepest level of sleep, they affect how you dream during REM cycles. Since the happy feelings you experience involve oxytocin release, you are more likely to have peaceful dreams.
Allowing your dog to co-sleep also causes your heartbeats to synch and stay in rhythm. As a result, you’ll achieve a better night’s sleep and won’t have difficulties falling or staying asleep.
- Theta Brain Waves: Frequency, Sleep, Binaural Beats, and More
- Theta Waves: How They Work in The Brain, Affect Your Sleep + More
3. Increases Sense of Security
An increased sense of safety and security is vital, especially for women; if they feel safer, their sleep quality improves dramatically. For example, in studies where women co-slept with their dogs, they greatly impacted how much safer and more secure they felt. Consequently, these women felt protected and slept more soundly with their dogs there to protect them from security risks.
4. Eases Insomnia
For many people, insomnia is a serious problem and increases health risks. Anxiety is a common culprit that causes insomnia and prevents sleep regulation. Medical studies offer insight into how co-sleeping with a dog alleviates anxiety and helps pet owners sleep without tossing and turning all night.
High anxiety levels cause hypervigilance and hyperarousal. These two symptoms are common for vets and patients with PTSD and CPTSD. Owning a dog helps them improve their mood and lower the risks of insomnia and health-related complications.
- Sleep With Your Pet? How That May Affect You and Your Pet
- Here’s Why Sleeping With Your Dog Is Actually Good For You
5. Maximizes Comfort
Nightmares are another health concern for those suffering from PSTD or CPTSD. Night terrors are another symptom of this anxiety disorder, and co-sleeping with a dog can stop these hellish experiences and make sleep less traumatic. In addition, the comfort a dog provides creates a cozier environment for you both.
- Pets & PTSD: How the Human-Animal Bond Complements Treatment for Veterans
- The Benefits of Companion Animals for Managing Trauma
6. Decreases Loneliness
Sleeping alone too often can increase depressive states and causes a feeling of loneliness. While many people who don’t have a partner express the joy of stretching across their beds, letting their pet sleep on their bed helps them feel less lonely and improves their mood.
Studies show that the companionship of a dog keeps its owners more relaxed and serene. In addition, since they have a pet sleeping next to them, these singles are less likely to feel alone or need to seek outside companionship for the wrong reasons.
7. Improve Sleep Quality
In sleep studies, doctors calculated sleep efficiency for patients to determine if sleeping with a dog improved sleep quality. In these results, doctors found that many participants had a higher sleep efficiency percentage than those who did not.
While the study didn’t provide perfect scores, it did indicate that patients sleep longer and more efficiently with their dogs. In addition, the patients fell asleep and experienced fewer sleep disturbances with their dogs next to them.
8. Reduces Stress
Psychologists and therapists refer to the phenomenon in which therapy animals decrease the onset of anxiety and heighten stress levels as The Pet Effect and many counselors recommend getting a dog to many patients with these symptoms.
Cuddling with a dog increases the natural release of oxytocin and puts the Pet Effect into motion. In addition, the pet owner’s heart rate regulates and reduces cortisol levels that generate the adverse effects of stress. Thus, pet owners who let their dogs share their beds rest better and don’t experience the health risks of stress and higher cortisol levels.
9. Lowers Blood Pressure
Cardiology patients should consider the benefits of owning a dog and co-sleeping. Hypertension is a condition that causes irregularities in blood pressure levels and increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
The human-dog interaction helps regulate your blood pressure and prevents circumstances where you are too stressed to fall asleep and stay relaxed all night. Cuddling and petting your dog makes you both relax and drift off to dream quickly.
10. Strengthens Bond With the Dog
In many cultures, including in Alaskan Eskimo tribes, sleeping with dogs meant staying warm in subzero temperatures. However, veterinarians and psychologists believe this act strengthens the bonds between the pet and its owner.
Forming strong bonds with pets is essential to dogs and aids in socialization and preventing them from becoming feral. The more dogs are around humans, the more they are likely to trust them, especially their owners. More formidable bonds are achieved when the dog sleeps close to their owner.
11. Promotes a Healthy Heart
Owning pets is good for your heart. A study by national cardiologists shows that pet owners are less likely to succumb to heart disease since they are calmer. These individuals also had fewer diagnoses of hypertension. A bonus is that owning a large dog makes you more active and healthier.
- 16 Science-Backed Reasons Adopting a Dog Could Be Good for Your Heart.
- Having a dog can be good for your heart. Here’s how to keep your dog’s heart healthy, too.
12. Reduces Allergies Later in Life
A common argument against co-sleeping with dogs is the potential of allergens in their fur. Though many still believe children develop allergies because they sleep with their dogs, it is quite the contrary. Studies show that infants who co-sleep with dogs are less likely to have allergies later in life due to exposure to more allergens.
- Infants Exposed to Dogs Less Likely to Develop Allergic Diseases
- Pets May Lower Your Baby’s Risk For Allergies
13. Better Overall Health
Owning a dog and co-sleeping offers many health benefits, and you could decrease health risks the more you interact with your pet. For example, some studies show reduced risks for cardiac episodes because of decreased cholesterol and other cardiovascular risks. These findings indicate that you can become a dog owner and transform your body and mind.
Additional Reading for Pet Owners
- The Science-Backed Benefits of Being a Dog Owner
- How Expensive is Owning a Dog?
- The Many Physical and Psychological Benefits of Having a Dog
- The Cost of Owning a Dog
- 12 Things You Learn During Your First Week of Owning a Dog
- The True Cost Of Owning A Dog: Can You Really Afford That Furry Friend?
- Estimated Annual Cost of Owning a Pet
- Here’s Exactly What to Know Before Getting a Dog
- The 9 Hardest Things About Owning A Dog That No One Ever Tells You About
- 5 Reasons to Own a Pet
- Does Owning a Pet Protect Older People Against Loneliness?
- Bonding With Your Dog – Are You Straining the Relationship?
- Owning a Dog
- How Owning Pets Can Lead to a Healthier Lifestyle
- Sleeping Habits of Different Animal Species
