Pets can help manage loneliness and depression by giving us companionship.
But new research has shown that your lovable pet dog or cat could be to blame for hurting your sleep and giving you restless nights.
The research, led by Dr. Lauren Wisnieski of Lincoln Memorial University, Tennessee drew upon data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted in 2005-2006. The study looked at that data from over 5,000 people to analyze the Sleep quality differences between pet and non-pet owners.
The analysis showed that the difference was most drastic between dog and non-dog owners compared with cat and non-cat owners.
Blame your dog for your lack of sleep!
Overall, having a dog was associated with more trouble with sleeping, sleeping disorders, sleep apnea, feeling unrested, feeling sleepy, not getting enough sleep, needing pills to sleep, and having leg jerks compared to non-dog owners.
While cat owners were more likely to snore and leg jerks in the night compared to non-cat owners.
Dr. Wisnieski suggests that these sleep quality differences between cat and dog owners may be because cats tend to be more active at night.
