很多人都觉得和宠物睡在一起不卫生，但是对于爱宠人士而言，这根本不是问题。跟宠物同床而眠对身心健康到底是利大于弊，还是弊大于利？来听听科学家怎么说。

 

In the quest for better sleep, people often ask if they should share their bed with a pet. Before we get to that, let's take a moment to ponder the flip¹ side: Is sleeping with you good for your pet?

很多人都有这个疑问：和宠物同床睡觉是否有助于睡眠？在回答这个问题之前，我们先来看看问题的另一面：宠物和你睡在一起，是否有利于宠物的健康？

 

"In general, it is a very good thing for animals to sleep with their people." said Dr. Dana Varble, the chief veterinary officer for the North American Veterinary Community.

北美兽医社区的首席兽医官戴娜·瓦布尔医生说：“总体来说，宠物和人一起睡觉对宠物来说是很好的。”

 

Pets who share their human's bed tend to have a "higher trust level and a tighter bond with the humans that are in their lives. It's a big display of trust on their part," Varble said.

瓦布尔说，和人同床而眠的宠物通常“对主人更信任更亲密。这是宠物非常信任人类的表现。”

 

"Dogs and cats who are more closely bonded² with their humans get additional health benefits, including increases in beneficial neurotransmitters such as oxytocin and dopamine, the feel-good hormones," she added.

她补充道：“与人类更亲近的狗和猫等动物还能得到额外的益处，包括会分泌更多催产素和多巴胺等神经传导物质，也就是我们所说的快乐激素。”

 

With that important matter out of the way, let's turn to you -- is it good for you to sleep with a pet? Experts have traditionally said no because you might not get quality shut-eye.

在搞清这个重要问题之后，现在来关注一下宠物主人：和宠物一起睡觉对人有好处吗？传统上，专家都会给出否定答案，因为你可能无法得到高质量睡眠。

 

"Animals may move, bark and disrupt sleep. Sleep in dogs (and cats) is not continuous and they will inevitably⁴ get up and walk on the bed, stepping on people. All of that activity will lead to sleep fragmentation," said Dr. Vsevolod Polotsky, director of sleep research and a professor in the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

约翰斯•霍普金斯大学医学院医学系教授弗谢沃洛德·波罗特斯基博士说：“动物会动来动去，大声叫唤，而这会干扰睡眠。狗和猫的睡眠是间断性的，睡一会儿就必然会起来走动，并踩到主人。这些活动都会导致主人的睡眠片段化。”

 

These "microawakenings," which can happen without your awareness⁵, "are disruptive because they pull you out of deep sleep," said Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "They have been associated with the release of the stress hormone³, cortisol, which can make sleep even worse."

西北大学范伯格医学院的神经学及预防医学副教授克里斯汀·克努森说：“这些你可能意识不到的短暂觉醒会打断你的深度睡眠，并导致皮质醇释放，而这种压力激素会让你的睡眠质量变得更糟糕。”

 

That may be true for many of us, but recent studies have shown that pets in the bedroom could be beneficial for some of us.

对许多人而言，和宠物共眠或许确实会影响睡眠质量，但是最近的研究表明，和宠物同睡对一些人是有益的。

 

"People with depression or anxiety may benefit from having their pet in the bed because the pet is a big pillow, a big blanket, and they may feel that snuggly, cuddly⁶, furry⁷ creature decreases their anxiety," said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

南加州大学凯克医学院的临床医学助理教授、睡眠专家拉杰·达斯古普塔博士说：“跟宠物同睡可能会对抑郁或焦虑的人有好处，因为宠物就像一个大枕头、一条大毯子，这种温暖舒适、毛绒绒、让人想拥抱的感觉会减轻他们的焦虑情绪。”

 

Data gathered in 2017 from the Mayo Clinic's Center for Sleep Medicine in Phoenix⁸ found over half of pet owners seen in the clinic allowed their pet to sleep in the bedroom -- and the majority found their pet "unobtrusive or even beneficial to sleep."

2017年凤凰城的梅奥诊所睡眠医学中心收集的数据发现，来诊所的超半数宠物主人都让宠物在卧室里睡觉，大部分人认为自己的宠物“没有干扰、甚至有助于自己的睡眠。”

 

About 20% however, did believe their furry friends made their slumber⁹ worse.

不过的确有20%的宠物主人认为宠物让自己的睡眠质量下降了。

 

Children may benefit from sleeping with a pet as well. A 2021 study asked adolescents ages 13 to 17 to wear sleep trackers for two weeks and then undergo a state-of-the-art sleep test. About a third of the kids slept with a pet, the study noted¹⁰, which didn't appear to affect the quality of their rest.

孩子们也能得益于和宠物共眠。2021年的一项研究让13到17岁的青少年连续两周佩戴睡眠追踪器并接受最先进的睡眠测试。研究指出，约有三分之一的孩子和宠物一起睡，而且宠物似乎没有影响他们的睡眠质量。

 

Despite the new science, many of us still need to think twice about bringing our dogs, cats or indoor pigs into our beds.

尽管新科学理论认为和宠物共眠有益，但是许多人在和狗、猫或宠物猪同睡之前还是要三思。

 

"It is particularly harmful in people with insomnia¹¹ or in patients with other sleep disorders," Polotsky said.

波罗特斯基说：“对于患有失眠或其他睡眠障碍的人来说，和宠物同睡尤其有害。”

 

There is another reason why snuggling with pets all night may not be good for your health. If you are one of the millions of people who suffer from asthma¹², allergies¹³ or chronic¹⁴ obstructive pulmonary disease, sleeping with a furball could become a nightmare.

和宠物一起睡可能对你的健康不利还有另一个原因。如果你是数百万患有哮喘、过敏或慢性阻塞性肺病的患者之一，和宠物一起睡将会带来灾难性的后果。

 

And there are some pets, Varble said, you should never invite to bed.

瓦布尔说，还有一些宠物是绝对不能和人同床睡觉的。

 

"I work with exotic pets, and a lot of them have very specific health and safety requirements, including being in an enclosure," Varble said. "So while I know people who are very close to their ferrets and their guinea pigs, they need to be in their enclosure for their health at night. Those are not animals that we would want to have in bed with us."

瓦布尔说：“我曾经和珍禽异兽打过交道，其中不少都有特殊的健康和安全要求，包括圈养规定。我知道有些人与自己的雪貂和豚鼠非常亲密，但是为了健康着想，夜里还是应该把它们关起来。这些动物都不适合和我们同床而眠。”

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