Keep your pet in your bedroom for a better night's sleep

Want a better night's rest? Invite Fido into your bedroom! You could improve your sleep quality just by snoozing with your pet.

The catch? Lassie better have her own bed! That's according to new research from the Mayo Clinic.

The goal was to see how sleeping with a pet affects your sleep. Scientists studied 40 dog owners with no sleep disorders over the course of five months. Both the humans and their pups wore activity devices to track their sleep patterns for seven nights of the study.

The results showed people who kept their dogs in their bedroom experienced better sleep quality compared to those who didn't. Scientists think it's all about security.

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If the dog is in the room and hears something fishy, it'll bark.

It's also a good way for us to get rid of the guilt we feel for leaving them alone while we're at work so we "throw them a bone" by letting them in the room for bedtime.

However, the study was very small and more research is needed to prove sleeping with your dog in the room helps. On the flip side, people who let their dogs sleep in bed with them had a lower quality of sleep.

With some dogs, good luck even getting a pillow from those bed hogs!

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