Mayo Clinic looks at pets and sleep disorders

Rochester, Minn.-So, what is keeping you up at night? A Mayo Clinic study suggests it could be an owner's pet, if they are sleeping in the same bedroom.

John Shepard, MD, medical director of the Mayo Clinic Sleep DisordersCenter, recently asked that question to 300 patients who came to the centerfor a routine consultation. He found that many people with sleep problemswere sharing their bedrooms with their cats and dogs.

"The results indicate that 22 percent of our patients are likelyto have pets sleeping on the bed with them," Shepard says. "That'sa significant number."

Obviously pets are not targeted as the sole scapegoat for sleep problems.Shepard adds that many common things in daily life affect sleep. The sleepingenvironment - especially sound, movement, light, temperature and humidityin the bedroom - plays a significant role in the quality of people's sleep.

Shepard became interested in how pets can disrupt people's sleep afterone patient reported that she frequently got up in the middle of the nightto let the dog out and waited up to 15 minutes before returning to bed withher pet.

"After hearing that anecdote, I began to wonder how many of my patientswere sleeping with pets and how much the pet interrupted sleep," hesays.

Between February and September 2001, Shepard surveyed 300 patients seenat the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center to determine the frequency andseverity of sleep disruption that might result from family pets. He foundthe following:

* 157 of 300 patients (52 percent) had one or more pets, primarilycats and dogs.

* Nearly 60 percent of the patients with pets slept with theirpets in the bedroom. When a dog was permitted to sleep in the bedroom, ithad a 57 percent chance of being allowed to sleep on the bed.

* Of the pet owners, 53 percent considered their sleep to be disruptedto some extent every night, but only 1 percent felt that their sleep wasdisrupted for more than 20 minutes per night on average.

* Snoring was reported in 21 percent of dogs and 7 percent ofcats.

* Cats were more likely to be allowed in the bedroom and on thebed.

"I suspect that the degree of sleep disruption experienced may besignificantly greater than the owners admit, but I have no objective data,"says Shepard.

"Every patient has to weigh the advantages and disadvantages ofsleeping with pets and make a personal decision about the sleeping arrangementsin the household. Some people are very attached to their pets and will toleratepoorer sleep in order to be near them at night," he adds.