Should You Really Share a Bed with Your Cat?
Holly Brockwell and Zack Fox had a fairly normal relationship, except when it came to the cat. In 2017, the couple decided to move into a 2-bedroom flat in London, but after some weeks, Brockwell, a blogger, decided to use the spare room, opting to share her bed with her cat instead.
Apparently Fox, having grown up a dog lover, couldn’t seem to get along with the cat well enough to sleep with it. So who was right? Brockwell or Fox? Should you really be sharing your bed with your cat?
Before sharing your bed with your cat, you should consider the pros and cons of having a feline bedmate. While cats should never be allowed to sleep with infants and small children due to suffocation risks and those with asthma and pet allergies should avoid sleeping with cats at any age, most will find that the decision between your bed and a cat bed a balance between risk and reward.
Pros of Allowing Cats to Sleep in Your Bed
1 - Better Sleep
In 2014, the Center for Sleep Medicine, Mayo Clinic in Arizona, performed a study about co-sleeping with pets. Over 50% of the study group reported co-sleeping with their pet. Around 20% described their pets as disruptive to sleep and 41% described their pet as either unobtrusive or beneficial to sleep.
In getting better sleep with your sleeping cat in the bed with you, it most likely will come down to the cat’s personality and behavior. If the cat snuggles up and provides comfort, warmth, and security, then it’s likely to be a positive experience for both you and your cat.
2 - Bonding & Training
Sleeping with your cat allows you to form a deep bond with him/her that can be instrumental in training processes and your overall relationship.
3 - Protection
Cats have excellent hearing and movement perception, which can quickly alert you if something is amiss in your home. The Mayo Clinic study found that one of the benefits pet owners listed to sleeping with their pet is in a feeling of safety and security.
Cons of Allowing Cats to Sleep in Your Bed
1 - Germs
Cats use their paws to cover up their feces and long-haired cats often carry around a host of germs and unsanitary particles. Allowing your sleeping cat on your bed and pillows increases your risk of contracting zoonotic diseases, or those passed from animal and man. Cats can carry an array of fungal, bacterial, parasitic, and viral infections, such as ringworm, toxoplasmosis, sporotrichosis, conjunctivitis, Q fever, cat scratch disease, salmonella, and tapeworm. Of course, the fleas and ticks possibly present on a cat sleeping with you carry their own set of illnesses, such as ticks and Lyme disease.
2 - Retaliating
Once you’ve allowed a sleeping cat in your bed, it’s almost impossible to reset the boundary. Cats are creatures of habit. They do not adapt well to changes in their routines and environment, and their response is typically destructive behavior when they lose territory or privileges.
3 - Sleep & Relationship Disturbances
Just as a cozy sleeping cat can provide comfort and support good sleep, a rambunctious cat can mean a lot of sleepless nights and being pawed or jostled awake multiple times a night. Again, how well you sleep with a kitty in bed depends on the cat’s personality and how well they understand the difference between sleep time and play time. The sleeping cat may also cause a rift between human bedmates if one feels uncomfortable having a sleeping cat in bed with them or isn’t the cat’s biggest fan.
What Happened to Brockwell and Fox?
And as for the couple who share different beds? They’re actually still together and doing well. The two have gotten used to sleeping separately, and actually sleep much more peaceful, Brockwell with the cat, and Fox without the cat. It just goes to prove that there is no absolute rule that works for everyone. Cat owners need to take theirs and their partner’s needs into account when decided how to sleep train their cats.