This writer had a dog, Bubba. For years, he would bark at her when he felt it was time for bed. Sometimes it was 8:30 PM, other times it was later. But he was insistent, and persistent: he'd stand by the stairs, give her a meaningful look, and bark until she went up with him. He'd fall asleep on the bed and she could stay up as long as she wanted, just as long as she stayed on the same floor.
Now a new study shows that people who sleep near their dogs don't experience disrupted sleep.
A surprising new study finds that people who sleep near their dogs don’t experience disrupted sleep. If anything, the University of Toronto researchers discovered, we humans are the ones disturbing our dogs’ sleep. https://t.co/fCVVc4vwE8
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 8, 2026
There’s no feeling in the world like cuddling up at night with your pooch, even when we think they’re messing up our sleep by hogging space, stealing covers and yapping at random sounds.
A surprising new study found that people who sleep near their dogs don’t experience disrupted sleep. If anything, the University of Toronto researchers discovered, we humans are the ones disturbing our dogs’ sleep.
And we feel safer sleeping with our dogs, hinting at “a deeper evolutionary history” between humans and dogs, said study co-author Ming Fei Li, who was a graduate student of evolutionary anthropology during the research.
Activity trackers similar to Fitbits monitored the nighttime activity of 25 human volunteers and their 38 dogs in southern Ontario to monitor how each affected the other’s sleep. The study, which was published Wednesday in PLOS One, was conducted during the COVID pandemic as part of a larger project comparing the activity patterns of socialized wolves and domestic dogs.
Turns out we disrupt their sleep, and they still are loyal to us. We do not deserve dogs.
The author... pic.twitter.com/LPeBjRCQuw
— Mike Moss (@_MikeMoss) October 8, 2026
Quite possibly.
lol, now do cats.
— Mike Joseph (@MikeJosephAZ) October 8, 2026
Cats absolutely do not care about you or your sleep.
Your dog spends about 20% of the night awake and its sleep quality doesn't drop at all. In the bed-sharing arrangement, you were always the fragile one.
— Aakash Gupta (@aakashgupta) October 9, 2026
Dogs are polyphasic sleepers. Their sleep comes in short bouts stacked across the whole day, and their brains are built to… https://t.co/JgU61QXCYn
It's interesting how their brains and evolution work.
My dog wakes me up to put the blanket back on him. https://t.co/z3mZV37ecq
— kyla (@kylaer_) October 8, 2026
We hope you oblige him, Kyla.
It was good of the researchers to take questions on this today https://t.co/MxDT8HiGTQ pic.twitter.com/Aq4Si1Pnfz
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 8, 2026
Very good of them.
In related news, NBC is now hiring dogs to write for them…. https://t.co/k00YeTmIWR
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 8, 2026
Heh. Well played, Senator. It's an improvement for NBC.
This was totally written by a dog who’s no longer allowed to sleep on the bed. https://t.co/Y8WmgFozYj
— Melanie D'Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) October 8, 2026
Who wouldn't let their dog sleep on their bed? This writer had to put Bubba to sleep last December and she's missed him every day since.
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