The effects of bed sharing on sleep: From partners to pets

Bed sharing is common practice across the global population. However, the vast majority of research on bed sharing has focused solely on mother-infant bed sharing.

Here, we provide a holistic review of research on bed sharing. Articles investigating the relationship between bed sharing and sleep were identified in 4 dyad categories: (1) parent and child, (2) couples, (3) siblings, and (4) pet owners and pets. Of interest was whether sleep-promoting factors such as psychological comfort were generalizable across bed-sharing dyads; alternatively, sleep-demoting factors such as movement or heat may be commonalities.

We found that, across dyad types, in general, subjective reports of sleep quality were better when bed sharing despite generally worse objective measures of sleep.

Understanding bed sharing is important to treating sleep disturbances, given the prevalence of shared beds. This scoping review points to critical gaps in our understanding of bed sharing that motivate future research.