Is it bad to sleep with my pet?

When Shelby Harris, a sleep psychologist in New York City, starts working with patients who are having trouble sleeping, she always asks if they have pets. “The first thing they say to me is: ‘I have a dog. You are going to tell me not to sleep with the dog’,” she said.

That is not necessarily the case, Harris said. Some people experience great joy from sleeping with their pets, and not everyone suffers from sleep disruptions. But if the pet is the source of the problem, Harris said, that is good for everyone to know.