Your beloved pet may be hurting your sleep, new research finds.
Though pets can be helpful for health, pet owner was likely to have poorer sleep, according to a study.
The researchers corrected factors that could influence sleep, including race （种族）and income （收入） , as well as age, gender （性别）and BMI, and focused on whether a person had a sleep disorder and whether a person had a cat or a dog.
The findings showed that having a dog was connected with a greater chance of having a sleep disorder and having trouble sleeping, while having a cat was connected with having a higher chance of leg jerks （抽搐）in the night. "The age of the pet has a big influence on whether or not they keep you up at night, " van Egmond said. "If you have many pets, they can egg each other on. "
With dogs, it depends a lot on the kind and the activity level it needs. Making sure a pet gets plenty of physical activities and mental stimulation （朿!| 激）during the day can help animals—and their owners—get better rest.
Unlike dogs, cats are more active at night and it is easier to use up their energy. If you play with your cat before it is ready for bed, you would make it hard for cats to fall asleep. If you feed your cat after playing with it, your cat would feel that it has successfully hunted its food and is rewarded with a nice meal in return. Then it goes to sleep quickly.
The new study shows that pets can influence your sleep, but we have to really think about that pets are much more than a pet in our family.
