Should You Let Your Dog Sleep in Your Bed? 3 Pros & Cons of Co-Sleeping With a Dog

Stumble into any community or group of pup parents (online or in person) and you’ll likely hear the debate about whether you should let your dog sleep in your bed!

Some of us LOVE having our dogs sleep in the bed.

Some of us HATE the idea of our pup potentially disturbing our sleep.

While we won’t come to a complete resolution, because it’s a personal decision, my hope in this article is to clearly explain 3 pros and cons of letting your pup sleep in your bed. After that, it’s your life (and your bed). 😀

Oh, and of course, we’ll cover what the research and data have to say about this co-sleeping dilemma!

Here’s what this article will break down:

-3 pros of letting your dog sleep in your bed

-3 cons or drawbacks of letting dogs sleep in the bed

-Tips for safe co-sleeping with your dog if you decide to do so

Before we dive into all the pros, cons, and data about having your dog sleep in your bed, let’s look at some fun survey results we got back from our Instagram!

Of course, this is self-reported and our followers on Instagram surely skew toward the ‘dog lovers’ type of pet parents.

We asked, “Do you let your dog sleep in your bed?” and got 312 votes. 

30% of people said their dogs sleep in their beds.

We also asked, “Does your dog sleep in your room?” and got 310 votes.

76% said their dogs sleep in their bedroom.

I truly found these statistics interesting, I thought more of our Instagram followers would let their dog sleep in their bed.

Beyond “I just like having my dog in my bed”, there are some strong arguments for having your pup sleep in bed with you.

Some of these arguments have data to back them up. Here are 3 main reasons you may want your dog to sleep in your bed:

-Comfort, relaxation, and strengthening your bond

-Warmth

-Protection and security

I personally love sleep. I recognize it as something that can play a huge role in how I feel, think, and act on a daily basis (research does as well).

The thought of “bad” sleep scares me.

Here are some of the main drawbacks of co-sleeping with your dog:

-Noise & movement can negatively impact sleep

-Disrupting intimacy

-Diseases, cleanliness and potty accidents

If you decide you want your dog to sleep in the bed with you, there are some tips to follow! These will not only help keep your dog safe but also keep you and your bed protected!

Here are 7 tips for safe co-sleeping with your dog:

-Potty & crate training first

-Wash your sheets and pillowcases frequently

-Invest in a waterproof mattress cover

-Practice proper dog hygiene

-Teach your dog boundaries, an invitation should be required

-Provide a dog bed or crate near your bed

-If you have a really small dog, consider not co-sleeping

There is no perfect answer to whether you should let your dog sleep in your bed.

Some studies show almost no change in sleep quality between co-sleeping vs not.

Other studies show an increase in night wakings when co-sleeping with a dog.

Overall, we need more data and research to understand the effects of sleeping with dogs in our beds! There is a swath of data for human co-sleeping, but not so much for dogs. 

With the large increase in the number of households with dogs, we should look to improve our understanding of the human-dog co-sleeping arrangement.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the perfect pup podcast.Helping you build a better
relationship with your pup presented by pup furred.
Hello. Pop parents and welcome to
today's episode of the perfect pup podcast.
We're diving into a divisive conversation about whether or
not to let your dog sleep in your bed.
We're going to talk about some statistics that we have here at

(00:22):
pup, furred some pros, some cons.
And we'll also talk about if youdecide to have your dog sleep in
your bed, how to do it in a safe?
Safeway. So let's get right into it.
Be sure to stick around to the end because I'm going to give
you one item to own in your home.
If you are going to go sleep with your dog that will likely
save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

(00:44):
So be sure to stick around till the end for that.
We did a quick survey on our Instagram stories and we asked
how many people let their dogs sleep in their bed.
We had over 300 respondents. Only thirty percent said they
let their dogs sleep in their bed, I thought it would be
Higher. And then we also asked if people
let their dogs sleep in their bedroom and again over 300

(01:06):
respondents about 75%. So I would say the vast majority
of people have their dogs in their bedroom, but not
necessarily in their bed and you'll hear a lot of different
schools of thought. I'm going to present some data
and some research that has been done on this topic to help you
make an informed decision. If you're deciding whether or
not to let your dog sleep in your bed with you.

(01:26):
So, first things first, let's talk about the pros.
Some of the benefits of having your dog sleep in the bed, and
these ones are going to be a little bit more subjective and
they'll be different for every person.
But these are kind of some general themes that you'll see
when you talk to people who havetheir dogs sleep in their bed,
the number one is going to be Comfort relaxation and
strengthening a bond. There is some data out there.

(01:51):
A lot of it is from self-reported, surveys.
That people saying that having the dog in bed with them
provides a strong sense of comfort and general relaxation.
Sation that helps them to fall asleep.
There are also studies, you know, about the positive effects
of dogs on our mental health andon, even things like blood
pressure outside of the context of bedtime and sleeping.

(02:14):
But generally speaking, you could think if dogs have been
shown to be positive correlationfor other parts of our Lives,
you can argue that it would be the same for sleeping.
And some also say that it increases their bond and
attachment with their dog, that they Just feel closer to them,
they feel closer connection and I think there's a lot of Truth
to that just you know, looking back into history about about

(02:37):
humans and how we interact with animals and even dogs in the
history of dogs that there is a kind of tight-knit relationship
there and you know, in the earlyearly times of our ancestors and
dogs ancestors. When they were starting to
interact, there was definitely alevel of, you know, them being
near each other and sleeping near each other, for other
reasons like protection, which will cover for our third point.

(02:59):
But For that. The second one one that is very
important to my wife, warmth I run hot.
So I like to sleep in his cold of a room as possible with a fan
on and is getting as cold as I can get.
Basically under the covers, I run hot my wife, she's the
opposite, she runs cold. So there's that constant classic

(03:21):
back and forth between having the temperature be correct in
the room for sleeping and truly.Dogs have helped with this.
We have to let Labrador Retrievers.
And yes they generally do sleep in the bed.
One is usually only in the bed at a time but the warmth that
she puts off is nice for my wife.
It keeps it helps keep her warmer especially when she

(03:44):
sleeps near her feet those typesof things and generally speaking
you know dogs run hotter than wedo.
They they're normal body temperature is about 102 that
for degree difference in warmth really can put off some heat so
it can be advantageous. In all reality, it could.
Maybe save you, a few bucks on your heating, bill, your gas

(04:04):
bill. If you have your dog sleeping in
bed with you, you might be able to not run the heat as much as
you need to. So there are advantages the
third one we mentioned protection and security.
Well, I won't say that a dog is the same thing as an alarm
system or any other type of security, they do, provide a

(04:25):
sense of comfort and a sense of protection and security.
They can put Alert us to issues.There have been multiple
instances in my life, where my dogs have heard something at
night? They're sleeping in our bed and
they bark and they wake me up and alert me to a potential
Intruder or danger and real situations that I truly believe

(04:45):
were avoided because they were there with me and were able to
wake me up and I was able to check it out quickly.
Of course, you know, they're notgoing to solve all your security
problems, but it can provide a sense of security, and in some
cases Here's our other people trying to cause problems,
they're going to be deterred just by the sound of a dog
barking. So it's definitely a positive

(05:07):
aspect of having your dog sleep in bed with you.
But now to the cons, because letme tell you, I more than almost
anyone love sleep. I love, love love sleep.
I really strive to get close to seven or eight hours every
night. I use a sleep mask.
I like a dark room, I like it cold, like I love sleep.

(05:29):
So this topic was extremely important to me, especially when
we first got dogs and I was considering, wow.
Do I want dog sleeping in the bed?
So the first and probably the biggest con or negative aspect
of having dogs, sleep in bed with you, is the noise and
movement can I'm saying can leadto you waking up or more

(05:52):
movement for you. There's a couple studies one
study. It showed that Co sleepers,
people who slept with dogs it Them longer to fall asleep.
And the next day, they reported more feelings of being tired.
When they woke up, even in that study though, most of them don't
recall or don't report, their dog, waking them up, in the

(06:13):
middle of the night. So every piece of data can have
an opposite point, I guess you could say.
But I think the most important data points that I was able to
find as I was researching, this article is a study that was
done. That took 12 females and their
dogs and these females lived alone.
So just them in the Bad with thedog and they used actigraphy

(06:34):
which is basically think of likea sleep tracker.
That's really Advanced and they had that on the dog and on the
human and they track the humans sleeping near their dogs for
about 10 days and they brought back a lot of data points.
They were tracking it minute by minute to see what changed?
What happened? Some interesting statistics.

(06:54):
It said that 50% of human movement was accompanied by dog.
Movement and the dog movement which is was a much stronger
indicator and factor for human movement than the inverse.
So it was more likely that the dogs cause the humans to move
while they were sleeping versus human moving and waking up the

(07:16):
dog. But the biggest data point was
that when the dogs moved which again, dogs humans, we all move
while we're sleeping but when the dogs moved, it was three
times more likely to transition the human.
From a non moving to a moving State.
There's a lot that goes into that and there's all kinds of
different stages of sleep and quality of sleep and there's

(07:37):
hundreds of studies going over that.
But generally speaking three times more likely, when the dog
moved for the human to then moveafterward.
But again, even in that study, most of those women they did not
report remembering their dog waking them up or causing them
to move. So there's some Nuance to all of

(07:58):
this data. But Is definitely some argument
that our dogs being in the bed. Their movement can cause us to
move and wake up more. Not have his deep of a sleep.
And of course, the noise especially if you have a younger
dog and they're still learning how to behave.
They might hear noises and bark.There's the unexpected noises
like they're snoring, or they're, you know, sleep barking

(08:20):
or sleep, whining. All those different things that
can happen with your dog. The second point, it's
disrupting intimacy. Let's just be frank for a minute
that most Emmett moments happen in a bed and if you've ever
experienced trying to enjoy an intimate moment and your dog
walks in, its extremely, weird and awkward and it's just a

(08:40):
factor that you have to look at when you're considering letting
your dog sleep in your bed. And also, if you happen to be
single or you're dating or whatever the situation, and you
have another partner and they don't like dogs or they're not
used to having dogs in the bed. That's a whole nother Dynamic
that you have to kind of think about of You can confine your

(09:01):
dog in these moments, you can put them in a crate or in
another room but when our dogs get used to being in the bed
whenever they want and then sometimes they're not, it's hard
to draw that line. It's hard to delineate when it
is, or isn't, okay? So again, there are things you
can do to mitigate your dog disrupting intimate moments, but
it is something you should consider as a drawback.

(09:23):
When you allow your dog to sleepin the bed with you.
The third thing to think about is Cleanliness there.
Things like diseases hair, slaver, potty accidents.
Let's talk about how those can be drawbacks.
There are actually some studies that show that zoonotic diseases
which are diseases that are passed from animal to human, can

(09:45):
be more likely to spread when humans and dogs or humans and
other animals share a bed. So disease's themselves can
spread more easily when we're sleeping your dogs.
And, you know, when you just think about it, you know, if
your dog Is laying anywhere nearyour pillow, and they might have
a sickness and a, you know, drool or they get saliva on your

(10:05):
pillow and then you sleep on that pillow.
And your face is right there. I mean, it can happen very
easily, but even outside of diseases, I will say, just the
fact that dogs aren't super clean, right?
Like, they can be stinky, they can shed, they might have Dirty
Paws, they might track dirt intoyour bed.
All those things are factors that you should consider when

(10:28):
thinking about letting Your dog sleep in your bed but probably
more. So than either of those I would
say is the challenge of potty accidents and things like
vomiting are dogs. Even when they're potty-trained
things still happen. They sometimes just lose control
of their bowels, or maybe they're sick, or maybe.
Yeah, they throw up. And if that's happening in your

(10:49):
bed, you may or may not hear it,and you may not wake up to it.
And if you don't again, if your dog, pees in your bed, that's
going to seep through, potentially onto your Dries,
it's just it's problematic to say the least so those are
definitely some things to think about when you're considering
letting your dog sleep in your bed, if you've decided you do

(11:10):
want your dog to sleep in your bed, there are some tips that
you can use to ensure that it happens safely.
And in a way that kind of protects you, your dog, your
bed, all those good things. The first thing I would say
potty and crate train, your dog first, it's so important that
your dog has an understanding ofwhen and where to go to the
bathroom. And even how to let you know

(11:31):
when they need to go before. They're just sleeping in your
bed because what can happen. And I will say I've experienced,
this is if you have young puppy and they sleep in your bed, they
might just wake up, walk around,they don't really know where to
go. So they just go where they are
and pee in your bed and I'll tell you it is not fun to wake
up to. It is not fun to clean up.
So potty and crate trained before you have your dog sleep

(11:53):
in your bed, the second thing, wash your sheets, and especially
your pillowcases frequently, more frequently than if Ugh,
does not sleep in your bed. I can't give you that exact
number because there's no real science to that.
But I think, you know, for yourself that you will want to
wash your sheets more regularly and especially your pillowcase.
Now, the thing practice proper, dog.

(12:15):
Hygiene everything from making sure.
They have baths. Making sure you're protecting
them from fleas and ticks. You are brushing their teeth,
cutting their nails, those typesof things.
I personally, wash my dog's Paws.
Every time we come in from beingoutside, all those things are
going to ensure that you don't have as many issues with
diseases sicknesses nastiness that can occur with a dog

(12:37):
sleeping in your bed. Another important Point here and
this can help with many of the drawbacks that we talked about
is setting boundaries. So it's best.
If your dog knows to only come on the bed when they're invited.
I will say not everyone's going to do this but it can help you
avoid potential problems. Like your dog becoming
territorial or your dog getting on the bed when you don't want

(12:59):
them to. So, Practice having boundaries
around your bed and them only coming onto your bed when they
are invited. Another tip is to keep a better
crate nearby. Sometimes your dog is going to
get hot or for whatever reason they want to get off the bed.
It's nice to give them an optionthat's near your bed so that
they can still be in the room, they can still be near you, but

(13:21):
they have their own place to go if they want.
Another thing to think about is,if you have a very small dog, it
can be a little bit more dangerous.
Just because you might roll overin the middle of the night, not
know your dogs. They're if they're that small,
you could crush them, you could cause problems, you could you
know cut off their Airway for breathing if there's you know a
blanket that ends up on top of them.

(13:42):
It's just something to think about if you have a really small
dog and generally speaking it's not best to have your dog be
under the covers because they can get too hot.
They can not know exactly where they are and maybe not know how
to get out there. There's a lot of things that can
happen there and my number one tip, if you're going to have
your dog sleep, In your bed withyou.
This is the product that will save you hundreds.

(14:05):
If not thousands of dollars, it is a waterproof mattress cover.
If you're going to have your animals sleep in bed with you
invest in a waterproof mattress cover.
Because I'll tell you this, no matter how expensive or cheap,
or whatever your mattress is, you don't want to be spending
money to replace it frequently. And if your dog has an accident

(14:26):
or throws up or whatever it is, and That doesn't go noticed, or
you forget about it or whatever.And that seeps into your
mattress, that smell is going tobe very, very hard to get out of
your mattress. So get a waterproof mattress
cover and then you are protecting your mattress.
Then you're only worrying about if there are accidents.

(14:47):
It's just the sheets and your duvet cover and maybe pillows or
whatever. But those are a lot cheaper to
replace than a mattress. I know that was a lot.
We went through a lot of Pros. A lot of cons, a lot of tips
here. Bottom line, you do what works
best for you. I think as an individual, it's
important to learn the pros and the cons of different situations

(15:08):
to see what data points. There are to have conversations
with people, you know. But at the end of the day, it's
your house, it's your dog, it's your bed.
You're the one who's going to live with that experience, the
good and the bad, but it's important to be aware of some of
these potential problems and I will make one asked, if you
would like to kind of participate in our own little
mini study that Are doing. Once this episode is live, there

(15:32):
will be a article with this podcast and video episode
embedded. And we're also gonna have a
little quiz. I would love for you to go vote
on that, and just let me know ifyou let your dog sleep in the
bed or not. I love to see what other parents
are doing it again. Above all, make the decision,
that's best for your dog, your specific situation, and your
family, your household needs, those types of things.

(15:54):
I hope you enjoyed this episode.If you did, please leave a
review on Apple podcast. Even just a A rating.
It helps the algorithm. It helps other people find this
episode and this podcast, and ifyou're on YouTube, subscribe,
comment like Ira. Try to respond to all reviews,
all comments and I really truly enjoy seeing them.
But other than that, we'll catchyou on the next episode.