Dogs and owners disturb each other in the night, but still get pretty good sleep
Sleeping alongside your dog probably doesn't disrupt your sleep as much as you might think, according to a study published Oct. 7, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Ming Fei Li of the University of Toronto, Canada, Lavania Nagendran of the University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada, and colleagues.
A recent study published in PLOS One suggests that sleeping with dogs may not disrupt sleep as much as previously thought, according to researchers from the University of Toronto. Ming Fei Li, Lavania Nagendran, and their colleagues examined nighttime activity patterns of 25 humans and their 38 dogs over four weeks using activity monitors.
Despite the common belief that dogs disturb their owners' sleep, the data showed no significant association between bed-sharing and sleep duration or quality. In fact, the study indicated that humans often started moving before their dogs, implying that owners might be disturbing their pets' sleep more than the other way around.
While the findings align with previous research on co-sleeping with dogs, the authors acknowledge that the study's limited sample size and lack of a dogless control group prevent definitive conclusions. They emphasize the need for future studies to include more data on dogs of various ages and breeds. The researchers conclude that nighttime activity patterns in humans and dogs are closely linked, and discrepancies may exist between objective and subjective sleep measures.
Written by urgent.news from Phys.org's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
