Why You’re Wired To Sleep With Your Dog
Are we wired to share our bed with dogs?
It’s a fair question to ask when you consider that HALF of all dog owners allow their pets to sleep on the bed with them. And scientists have some theories about why we share our bed with our pets:
First, it’s psychologically comforting. After all, dogs provide companionship when we’re lonely… and warmth when we’re cold, since the average canine body temperature is about 6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than that of humans. Dogs also provide an early warning system against approaching predators… Which means they helped us SURVIVE when we didn’t have shelter. And it explains why archaeologists have found evidence of people sharing beds with dogs going back to ancient Egypt!
In fact, some anthropologists think we’re biologically wired to want a pet nearby while we sleep. Because in almost every family with pets, children automatically curl up to sleep with animals – until their parents teach them NOT to. Which suggests the co-sleeping urge is encoded in both human AND doggie DNA.
That also helps explain why sales of “pet stairs,” to help animals climb into bed with us, rose 10% in the past year!
Source: tesh.com