If you share your bedroom or bed with your dog, you might assume that their movements, snoring or nighttime activity are disturbing your sleep. However, new research suggests that humans may be responsible for disturbing their dogs more often than the other way around.
A study published in PLOS ONE on 7 October 2026 investigated the nighttime activity patterns of dogs and their owners, examining whether sharing sleeping spaces affects sleep quality and which species is more likely to disturb the other.
Interestingly, the researchers found that human activity preceded dog activity more frequently than the reverse, suggesting that our dogs may be responding to our movements during the night.
How Was the Study Conducted?
Researchers studied 25 dog owners and 38 dogs in Canada, creating 38 human-dog pairs.
The dogs were all huskies or malamutes, selected to minimise differences in activity patterns between breeds.
Both owners and dogs wore activity monitors for approximately four weeks, allowing researchers to track movements throughout the night.
The owners also completed questionnaires about their sleeping arrangements, perceived sleep quality and whether they believed their dogs disturbed their sleep.
Some dogs regularly shared their owners’ beds, others occasionally slept on the bed, while some slept separately.
Who Is Disturbing Whom?
One of the most interesting findings was the relationship between human and dog nighttime activity.
Of the 36 human-dog pairs included in the movement analysis, approximately 61% showed a correlation between their nighttime activity patterns.
Among those pairs:
- 45% showed human activity occurring before dog activity.
- 18% showed dog activity occurring before human activity.
- 36% showed movements occurring within the same one-minute period.
These findings suggest that humans may influence their dogs’ nighttime activity more frequently than previously thought.
However, the researchers emphasise that the results demonstrate associations between movements rather than proving that one individual directly woke or disturbed the other.
The findings also differed from some previous studies, which suggested that dogs were more likely to initiate nighttime disturbances.
Does Sharing a Bed with Your Dog Affect Sleep Quality?
Perhaps surprisingly, the researchers found no significant evidence that sharing a bed with a dog affected owners’ objectively measured sleep duration or sleep efficiency.
Similarly, whether dogs slept on the bed did not significantly influence their nighttime activity.
However, owners with multiple dogs reported poorer sleep quality than those with just one dog.
Interestingly, this difference was not reflected in the objective sleep measurements, highlighting how perceived sleep quality does not always correspond with measurable sleep disturbances.
The researchers also found that owners had mixed perceptions about whether their dogs disturbed their sleep, with approximately half believing their dogs caused interruptions and the other half reporting no such problems.
What Does This Mean for Dog Owners?
The findings challenge the assumption that allowing dogs to sleep in the bedroom or on the bed necessarily leads to poorer sleep.
They also highlight the close relationship between human and canine activity patterns, with dogs appearing to respond to changes in their owners’ movements during the night.
However, the researchers acknowledge several limitations.
The study involved a relatively small number of participants and only included huskies and malamutes, meaning the results may not apply to all dog breeds.
Additionally, the activity monitors recorded movement rather than directly measuring sleep in dogs, so researchers could not determine whether individual movements represented waking, repositioning or activity during sleep.
The research was also conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when changes in working arrangements and daily routines may have influenced sleeping patterns.
Further research involving larger numbers of dogs, different breeds and more detailed sleep monitoring will be needed to understand the relationship fully.
Nevertheless, the study provides an interesting insight into the close connection between humans and their dogs, even when they are asleep.
And for owners who have always blamed their dogs for a restless night, the findings suggest that the responsibility might not be entirely one-sided!
