Study reveals that women actually sleep better with dogs than human partners
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Are you a lady who lets her beloved pooch sleep on the bed with her?
If the answer is yes, then we have good news for you!
According to a study led by associate professor Christ L. Hoffman of Canisius College, women actually sleep better next to a dog than with their human partner.
To collect their date, Hoffman and her team surveyed 962 women from around the United States, 55 per cent of whom said they slept with at least one pet pup by their side, and 31 per cent curled up with a kitty cat. Of these women, 57 per cent said they slept with a partner.
The results of the research showed that women who cuddled up with their dog at night had better sleep and felt safer during the night.
However, women sleeping next to a human partner, or cat reported equally that they had a more disrupted slumber.
Hoffman believes the dog-owning women got better sleep thanks to the stricter routine that dog owners often have of waking up earlier and going to bed earlier than those without dogs.
"Dog owners have to adjust to their dogs' needs to toilet each morning, and this helps keep dog owners on a relatively strict wake-up routine," she told HuffPost. "And dogs' major sleep periods tend to coincide more closely with humans' than do cats."
She also added how the sense of security a dog provided often helped add to a woman's comfort levels.
"Some dog owners may take comfort in the thought that their dog will alert them in the case of an intruder or other type of emergency," Hoffman said. "A cat is less likely to take on this role.”
Although, she did note that she was rather surprised that women felt safer with their dog than their own human partner.
"I had thought participants would have rated their dogs and human partners similarly in terms of the comfort and security they provide, but surprisingly, the women rated their dog bed partners as better sources of comfort and security than human partners."
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