與狗同眠，狗好你也好

For most Americans, dogs are no longer relegated to the doghouse. According to the American Pet Products Association, an industry trade group, almost 60 percent of dog owners say they regard their pet as a child or member of the family. And many let their dogs snuggle up to sleep right in their human owners’ beds, often alongside their owners.

對大多數(shù)美國人來說，狗已經(jīng)不再屈居狗窩了。據(jù)行會組織美國寵物用品協(xié)會(American Pet Products Association)稱，將近60%的養(yǎng)狗人士表示他們視寵物為自己的孩子或家庭的一員。并且許多人會讓自己的狗蜷在主人床上睡覺，往往還會睡在主人身邊。

But is sleeping in the same bed with your dog a good idea? Wouldn’t they be disruptive to our sleep?

但和你的狗睡在同一張床上是個好主意嗎?它們是否會擾亂我們的睡眠?

According to a recent study, not really. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix studied 40 dogs (none were puppies) who slept in the bedroom with their owners. The humans were all generally good sleepers, with no known sleep disorders.

根據(jù)最近的一項(xiàng)研究，不存在這個問題。菲尼克斯梅奧診所(Mayo Clinic)的研究人員對40只與主人一起睡在臥室里的狗做了研究(全部為成年犬)。這些主人總體都有著良好的睡眠，沒有已知的睡眠失調(diào)癥。

The dogs wore a device called a Fitbark, an activity tracker that attaches to the collar and records whether an animal is at rest and sleeping or active and at play. The people wore an Actiwatch 2, an activity monitor that records people’s movements and whether they are sleeping soundly or not. Both monitors were set to sample movement every minute, while the humans also kept a sleep diary.

犬只們會佩戴一個安裝在項(xiàng)圈上的FITBARK運(yùn)動跟蹤器，可記錄動物是在休息、睡眠還是活躍、玩耍。主人則佩戴可記錄人類活動并檢測他們是否在熟睡的Actiwatch2運(yùn)動監(jiān)控器。兩種監(jiān)控器每分鐘都會發(fā)送活動樣例，與此同時，人類還會寫睡眠日記。

Over seven days of testing, the researchers found that with a dog in the bedroom, both the humans and the dogs slept reasonably well. Humans had a mean sleep efficiency, or the percentage of time spent asleep while in bed, of 81 percent, while dogs had a sleep efficiency of 85 percent. Levels over 80 percent are generally considered satisfactory. People slept slightly better when the dog was off the bed; dogs slept the same whether they were on the bed or in another location in the bedroom.

經(jīng)過七天的測試，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，讓狗睡在臥室，人和狗都能睡得不錯。人類的睡眠效率，也就是床上時間里處于睡眠狀態(tài)的占比，是81%，犬只的睡眠效率為85%。水平超過80%通常會被認(rèn)為令人滿意。當(dāng)寵物不在床上睡覺時，主人的睡眠稍好;而狗狗不論是在床上還是在臥室的其他地方，睡眠都一樣。

“This goes against the lore that you should have the dog sleep elsewhere,” and not in the bedroom, said Dr. Lois E. Krahn, the study’s senior author and a psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist at the Center for Sleep Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Her 6-year-old golden retriever, Phoebe, routinely sleeps on the floor in the bedroom — and in the colder months joins her and her husband on their bed. Both the dog and the people, she said, sleep fine.

該研究的資深作者、梅奧診所睡眠醫(yī)學(xué)中心(Center for Sleep Medicine)的精神病專家兼睡眠醫(yī)學(xué)專家洛伊絲·E·克拉恩(Lois E. Krahn)博士表示，“這打破了不應(yīng)該讓狗睡在臥室、應(yīng)該睡在別的地方的說法”。她6歲的金毛獵犬菲比(Phoebe)經(jīng)常睡在臥室的地板上——在寒冷的月份里，菲比和她以及丈夫一起睡在床上。她說，狗和人都睡得很好。

In an earlier study from 2015, Dr. Krahn and her colleagues asked patients who had visited the Mayo Clinic’s sleep clinic whether they owned dogs, cats or other pets. About half did, with many owning more than one. Forty-one percent said they perceived their pet as unobtrusive or beneficial to their sleep, compared to 20 percent who said their pet was disruptive. That study was self-reported, and “we can’t quite trust people to have an accurate report or even be able to accurately observe their feelings for their pets,” Dr. Krahn said. “It’s sort of like a parent’s feelings for their child. I wanted to have objective data.” Hence the recent follow-up report that used activity monitors to get objective data.

在2015年的一項(xiàng)較早的研究中，克拉恩和同事們詢問梅奧診所睡眠診所的一些患者是否擁有狗、貓或其他寵物。約半數(shù)的患者擁有這類寵物，許多病人擁有一只以上寵物。41%的患者表示，他們認(rèn)為寵物對睡眠沒有干擾，甚至有利于睡眠，另有20%的患者認(rèn)為寵物對睡眠有干擾?？死鞅硎荆琼?xiàng)研究采取的是自我報告的形式，“我們不能完全相信人們能提供準(zhǔn)確的報告，他們甚至不能準(zhǔn)確地觀察自己對寵物的感受”，“這有點(diǎn)像父母對孩子的感覺。我想獲得客觀數(shù)據(jù)”。所以，前不久，他們進(jìn)行了跟蹤研究，使用活動監(jiān)視器來獲取客觀數(shù)據(jù)。

Where the pet sleeps “depends on the animal’s temperament,” said Dr. Carlo Siracusa, a veterinarian and the director of animal behavioral science at Penn Vet in Philadelphia. “There are dogs that tend to be more reactive to stimuli. So, for example, if the dog is on the bed and the owner turns and inadvertently hits the dog with the leg, some dogs will get startled and react out of fear,” growling or barking and waking the sleeper, he said. Other dogs aren’t bothered at all. “If there are no problems and the owner is happy with letting the pet in the bedroom, or on the bed, it’s fine with me.”

費(fèi)城的賓夕法尼亞州獸醫(yī)研究中心(Penn Vet)的獸醫(yī)兼動物行為學(xué)主任卡洛·西拉庫薩博士(Carlo Siracusa)表示，寵物在哪里睡覺“取決于動物的性情”，“有些狗對外界刺激的反應(yīng)比較強(qiáng)烈。所以，如果狗睡在床上，主人一翻身，無意中踢到了狗，有些狗會被嚇到，因?yàn)榭謶侄龀龇磻?yīng)”——咆哮或吠叫，吵醒睡眠者。也有些狗一點(diǎn)都不受影響。“如果沒出現(xiàn)什么問題，主人樂意讓寵物在臥室里睡，或者在床上睡，我覺得沒什么問題。”

He added that a dog sleeping in the same room or bed with humans won’t make Sparky think he’s top dog. “Dogs can distinguish between the relationship with its human fellows and other dogs, and the way in which they regulate their interactions with humans in the house is not trying to establish a hierarchy,” he said.

他還表示，和人類睡在同一個房間或同一張床上并不會讓狗覺得自己很了不起。“狗知道自己與人類的關(guān)系與它們與其他狗的關(guān)系不一樣，它們調(diào)節(jié)自己與家中人類的互動，并不是為了建立等級關(guān)系，”他說。

Some dogs may not belong in the bedroom, such as very young or old pets who may not sleep through the night, a sick pet or a reactive pet who might become aggressive when startled or woken up suddenly. Also, if a new baby is entering the family and will sleep in the same bedroom as the parents, Dr. Siracusa said, that might no longer be a good place for the pet to sleep – not because of concerns of a pet smothering a baby, he said, but because space may be an issue with that many human and furry bodies in one room.

有些狗并不適合待在臥室，比如非常年輕或年老的寵物，可能無法安睡一整晚，或是生病的寵物、活躍的寵物，它們在受到驚嚇或突然醒來時可能會帶有攻擊性。此外，西拉庫薩表示，如果家里新添了寶寶并且將和父母睡同一間房，可能臥室就不再是一個適合讓寵物睡覺的好地方了——他說那并不是出于擔(dān)心寵物會使嬰兒窒息，而是因?yàn)槟敲炊嗳撕兔兹椎纳眢w擠在一個屋子里，空間可能是個問題。

If a pet is already sleeping in your bed or in the bedroom and interfering with your sleep, you can take steps to transition a pet out of the bedroom. Dr. Siracusa said it is best to make the transition a gradual one rather than abruptly kicking the pet out of the bed or bedroom. That may mean first moving a dog from the human bed to a comfortable spot elsewhere in the bedroom, and then moving the pet just outside the door. The key is to create a similar sleeping experience for the pet. Dogs may be attracted to humans’ beds, especially if they’re elevated, “because they are comfortable and strategically in a good position,” letting dogs keep watch over their surroundings, Dr. Siracusa said. Creating an equally strategic place might mean that it’s also elevated, or that it has coverings that the dog can burrow under, or that it is near a heater that can simulate the warmth of the people in the humans’ bed.

如果寵物已經(jīng)睡在了你的床上或臥室里，并且影響了你的睡眠，你可以一步步地把寵物從臥室中轉(zhuǎn)移出去。西拉庫薩說，最好是循序漸進(jìn)的轉(zhuǎn)移，而不是突然就把寵物踢下床或丟出臥室。這可能意味著，首先要讓狗離開床，轉(zhuǎn)移到臥室內(nèi)其他舒適的地方，然后才把寵物移到門邊。關(guān)鍵是要為寵物創(chuàng)造一個相似的睡眠體驗(yàn)。他說，狗可能會被人的床鋪吸引，尤其是當(dāng)它們的位置較高時，“因?yàn)樗鼈儠械绞娣?，并且在?zhàn)略上處于有利位置”，能讓它們觀察到周圍的環(huán)境。創(chuàng)造一個同樣具有戰(zhàn)略性的位置，有可能意味著也需要有高度，或者有能讓狗鉆進(jìn)去的被褥，或者靠近暖氣片，模擬出人類在床上的溫度。

Some dogs will never want to sleep with their owners, especially if the owner snores or moves around a lot at night. “When dogs sleep, they want a safe space and don’t want to be bothered,” just like people, he said.

有些狗從來不想和主人一起睡覺，尤其是當(dāng)他們的主人晚上會打鼾或者會經(jīng)常動來動去的時候。“狗睡覺的時候想要一個安全的空間，不想被打擾，”就和人一樣，他說。

Figuring out where a new dog should sleep can take some time. When Natalie Hastings and her husband adopted Mikey, a 70-pound boxer bulldog mix, they tried letting him sleep in the bed at first, but he shifted around so much they moved him onto a couch. But as Mikey became more settled in their home and he slept more soundly through the night, that changed. He started sleeping in the bed with Mrs. Hastings when her husband traveled for work. Now he’s there all the time and, Mrs. Hastings says, helps her fall asleep faster.

要為新來的狗找好睡覺的地方可能會費(fèi)些時間。當(dāng)娜塔莉·哈斯廷斯(Natalie Hastings)和丈夫把這條70磅重的斗牛拳師混血犬米奇(Mikey)領(lǐng)養(yǎng)回家時，他們一開始曾試過讓它睡在床上，但它動靜太多，他們便把它移到了沙發(fā)上。但等到米奇對這個家更加適應(yīng)，晚上睡得更加安穩(wěn)的時候，就不再這樣了。每當(dāng)丈夫出差，它就會和哈斯廷斯夫人一起在床上睡覺。哈斯廷斯夫人說，它現(xiàn)在一直在床上睡了，能幫她更快入睡。

“I have trouble settling down, and he’s got very rhythmic breathing,” she said of Mikey. “It’s almost like white noise. And he’s really warm.”

“我很難平靜下來，而它的呼吸又很有節(jié)奏感，”她這樣評價米奇。“和白噪音差不多。并且它真的很暖和。”

Dr. Krahn said the next step in her research is to study a larger group of dogs and their owners, and also to see whether having one or two humans in the bed makes a difference.

克拉恩說，她下一步會對更多的犬只及其主人進(jìn)行研究，并觀察床上有一個人或兩個人是否會有差別。

She’d also like to do a similar study on cats, though they, of course, are entirely different animals. In addition to Phoebe, she has a 4-year-old cat, Oliver, who is allowed anywhere in the house except the bedroom because “the cat wanders, scratches, meows,” she said. While most dogs can be trained, “I think cats do what they want. If that cat is hungry in the middle of the night, that cat does not care” about waking you up, she said.

她還想對貓做一個類似研究，盡管兩者顯然是完全不同的動物。除了菲比之外，她還有一只4歲的貓——奧利弗(Oliver)。它可以在全家除了臥室以外的任何地方睡覺，因?yàn)?ldquo;這只貓會到處溜達(dá)、抓撓、喵喵叫，”她說。大多數(shù)的狗可以被馴化，但“我認(rèn)為貓會做自己想做的事情。如果它們半夜餓了，它們并不介意”吵醒你，她說。

Oliver the cat declined to comment.

貓咪奧利弗拒絕置評。