An observational study followed 25 people and 38 dogs in Ontario using movement sensors. In pairs whose nighttime movements were associated, people more often moved first than dogs did. Objective measurements of people’s sleep duration and efficiency did not differ significantly with bedsharing. The small study measured activity rather than physiological sleep in dogs, leaving who woke whom unresolved.
A single peer-reviewed observational study followed 25 people and 38 dogs in Ontario. Nighttime movements were associated in 22 of the 36 human–dog pairs included in the movement analysis. In 10 of those pairs, people moved first; dogs moved first in 4, and both moved within one minute of each other in 8. Temporal order does not establish who woke whom.[1]
People wore movement sensors on their wrists and dogs wore them on collars in late 2021, during November and December, for about four weeks. The dogs were huskies or malamutes, and some participants cared for more than one animal. Two pairs had incomplete data and were excluded. The paper was published on 7 October, long after these observations were collected.[1]
Measured sleep efficiency and duration in people did not differ significantly with bedsharing. Participants who cared for several dogs rated their own sleep more poorly. Those questionnaire responses and the sensor measurements were different outcomes, and the study did not include a comparison group of people without dogs.[1]
The sensor had not been validated to distinguish physiological sleep from wakefulness in dogs: a sleeping animal’s head or paw movements could count as activity. No direct behavioural observation or noise recording was collected. The small sample, predominantly women and limited to two dog breeds, narrows how widely the results can be applied.[1]
