Last Updated on October 9, 2022 by Pets Feed
Did you need an excuse? Well, science has given you up to five so you can give yourself one of the great luxuries that all dog lovers have: sleeping with your pet in the same bed. A study by the American Kennel Club, one of the most famous canine clubs in the United States, has shown that sleeping with our favorite animals is good for our health.
The first reason is that contact with dogs reduces anxiety. We have the proof in some airports in the United States such as Denver, where they have been walking dogs through the terminals for years to calm those passengers who have problems when it comes to flying. These therapy dogs help people stop thinking about their fears, forgetting that they are going to face a flight.
It is clear that if a dog can help a person with anxiety to forget their terrors, having your pet asleep next to you at night should not report any problems. And if you think that it is going to move too much and it is going to interrupt your important hours of sleep, you are also wrong and there is another study that proves it.
It is not contraindicated
The Mayo Clinic carried out an investigation among adults who had dogs and did not suffer from sleep disorders. The results were decisive: both the animals and their owners slept perfectly together. Not only that: many feared if the size of their pet was going to be fundamental, since sleeping with a cocker is not the same as with a mastiff, but there were no differences between humans due to the size of their dog. The vast majority slept soundly.
The size of the dog doesn’t matter either: you sleep just as well next to a poodle as a German shepherd
Another compelling reason to sleep with your dog is that petting lowers blood pressure. It is not about stopping sleeping and spending all night petting your pet (although the dog would be delighted), but giving the animal a little hunch shortly before sleeping according to the study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
The research measured the blood pressure of 60 people: some were talking to one person and others were petting a dog. And the group of participants who were in contact with the animals had their blood pressure reduced, which is another reason to sleep with your pet, since it will calm your biological functions.
And one more: climbing the dog to bed helps reduce stress. It doesn’t matter what the cause is: problems at work, a difficult exam or a family member in the hospital. When interacting with our dog, cortisol levels decrease, which causes stress, and oxytocin increases, which is the hormone associated with confidence.
If with all these reasons we still have not convinced you, there is still more. For example: imagine cold winter days with freezing temperatures outside the home and you covered with three blankets in bed to warm up. Well, letting your pet sleep next to you will help you conserve that body heat to spend the night very comfortable.
And if you are one of those who gets into bed and listens to noises everywhere, letting your dog sleep with you will be a good decision. Allowing pets to sleep with us produces a greater sense of security. And if, in addition, there is any noise in the house, the dog will detect it before us and will warn us with its barking. Another advantage of sleeping together.
All are advantages for us … but also for the dog. According to a study in the journal Human Nature, dogs that are good and behave well are perfect for sleeping in bed, since this gesture towards them will increase our common bond. Therefore, the benefit that our pet sleeps in bed with us is mutual and we no longer have excuses to say no when they ask us to, putting on the face of never having broken a plate.
