Who benefits from pets and their owners sleeping in the same bed or in the same room? Humans? Animals? Everybody? Nobody? Research in previous decades has demonstrated the importance of sleep so how does snoozing with your best animal friend affect both parties’ sleep?
For animals, those that sleep with their owners tend to have a stronger bond with the owner and a higher level of trust. Sleeping near another animal or human demonstrates a high level of trust from a dog or cat.
Dogs and cats who sleep with their owners experience higher levels of dopamine and oxytocin, the same “feel good” chemicals active in our own brains.
Unfortunately, when we ask if it is good for the owner’s some signs point to no.
Animals can easily disrupt their owner’s sleep. Animal’s sleep cycles are different. Their getting up, moving around, stepping on you, or noises they might make can lead to the fragmentation of the human sleep cycle. Even if they aren’t outright waking up their owners, the owner’s quality of sleep often suffers. These constant disruptions will pull the owner out of that deep sleep we all need even if the owner isn’t aware of it.
However, owners with anxiety or depression may receive some benefit to relieving the symptoms of those mental illnesses by sleeping with a trusted and loved pet.
A handful of studies using sleep monitors on pets and owners suggest that it might all depend on the particular human and animal. If neither party is disrupting the other’s sleep at worst there would be a neutral outcome.