Written by the Nuvirox Research Team
Key Points
- Research on dog co-sleeping is genuinely mixed: people subjectively report good sleep quality with a dog nearby, but objective actigraphy studies consistently find more nighttime movement and lower sleep efficiency when a dog shares the bed.
- A large Swedish cohort study (SCAPIS) found no significant association between dog ownership and sleep once confounders were controlled — but did find cat ownership linked to shorter sleep duration.
- None of the available research specifically isolates the first weeks of new-puppy ownership, which involve overnight potty breaks and crying — a genuinely under-researched but very real driver of short-term sleep loss.
Short answer: almost certainly, for the first few weeks — and the research on why is more mixed than you'd expect. Adult-dog co-sleeping studies show a real but modest objective sleep cost, and puppy-specific overnight care adds a layer no formal study has directly measured.
What does the research say about dogs and sleep?
The honest starting point is that this research is surprisingly inconsistent, and worth naming plainly. Using actigraphy (a wrist-worn movement sensor, a reasonably objective measure) on 40 dog-owner pairs, researchers found sleep efficiency was lower when the dog slept on the bed compared to elsewhere in the bedroom. A separate small study using minute-by-minute actigraphy on women and their dogs found dogs' nighttime movements predicted their owners' movements more than the reverse — yet the humans were largely unaware of it and rarely reported being woken by their dog.
That disconnect between subjective and objective findings shows up repeatedly in this literature. A large-scale Swedish cohort study (SCAPIS), which controlled for confounders like chronic stress, shift work, and social isolation, found no significant association between dog ownership specifically and sleep outcomes — though cat ownership was linked to shorter sleep duration, likely tied to cats' more nocturnal activity patterns. A more recent 2026 study in the Journal of Sleep Research similarly found the pet-ownership-and-sleep relationship was mediated by anxiety, perceived stress, and light exposure rather than being a simple direct effect.
Why does a new puppy specifically feel worse than this research suggests?
Because almost none of the existing research is about puppies specifically — it's about established adult dogs in settled routines. A new puppy adds something none of these studies measured: the genuine need for overnight potty breaks (young puppies typically can't hold their bladder more than a few hours), crate-training distress vocalizations, and the adjustment period of a new animal in an unfamiliar space. This is a real gap in the literature, not a case where research contradicts your experience — it simply hasn't been directly studied. What is established is the broader co-sleeping and disrupted-sleep mechanism above, which reasonably extends to a more acute version during the puppy adjustment period.
What Human Research Actually Shows
The actigraphy co-sleeping study (cited in Sleep Health, 2021) — found lower sleep efficiency and shorter wake-after-sleep-onset differences when comparing dogs sleeping in the bedroom (not the bed) to dogs sharing the bed directly, in a sample of dog-human dyads using objective movement tracking.
The SCAPIS Swedish cohort study (Scientific Reports, 2021) — a large population-based study using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, which found no significant association between dog ownership and sleep outcomes after adjusting for confounders, though cat owners showed increased risk of short sleep duration.
The honest counterweight: a 2026 cross-sectional study in the Journal of Sleep Research (N=1,256) found the pet-ownership-sleep relationship was significantly mediated by anxiety symptoms, perceived stress, and light exposure — meaning pet ownership itself isn't a clean predictor either way; it depends heavily on the owner's baseline stress and how the pet fits into their environment. And a well-being-focused study found dog co-sleeping was associated with higher subjective well-being scores even though the same literature shows it can reduce objective sleep efficiency — people may sleep slightly worse by the numbers while feeling genuinely better for having the dog there.
What Won't Help (and What's Actually Temporary)
Supplements and sleep hygiene changes won't stop a genuinely young puppy from needing an overnight bathroom break — that's a biological reality of puppyhood, typically resolving by around four to six months as bladder control matures. If disrupted sleep is severe enough to affect your functioning, most trainers and veterinary behaviorists recommend a consistent overnight routine (crate near the bed, scheduled bathroom breaks) over letting the puppy free-roam or co-sleep during the adjustment period, since a predictable routine tends to shorten the disruption window faster than an inconsistent one.
A Realistic Timeline
Most puppies can hold their bladder through the night by around 4-6 months old, and behaviorally settle into a household routine within the first few weeks to a couple of months. That roughly matches the adjustment-period pattern seen in other major life-schedule changes covered in whether sleep hygiene actually works — the acute phase is real but time-limited for most owners.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I let my puppy sleep in my bed?
The actigraphy research suggests co-sleeping on the bed (versus nearby in the bedroom) is associated with somewhat lower sleep efficiency, though the effect is modest and subjective sleep quality often doesn't reflect it. This is a personal choice with no strong evidence either way is 'correct.'
Is it normal to feel exhausted the first few weeks?
Yes. While no study has directly measured new-puppy sleep loss, the overnight care demands (bathroom breaks, settling a crying puppy) are a well-known reality of puppy ownership that predates and sits outside the adult-dog co-sleeping research.
Does crate training help sleep?
Anecdotally and per general veterinary behavior guidance, a consistent crate routine tends to shorten the adjustment period compared to inconsistent arrangements, though this hasn't been studied with the same rigor as adult dog co-sleeping.
Will owning a dog long-term hurt my sleep?
The best-controlled large study (SCAPIS) found no significant long-term association between dog ownership and sleep once confounders were accounted for — the disruption looks concentrated in the adjustment period and active co-sleeping, not dog ownership generally.
FROM NUVIROX
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Learn more about Sleep+ Restore →The Bottom Line
The first weeks of new-puppy ownership disrupt sleep for most people, largely for reasons (overnight potty breaks, settling a distressed animal) that sit outside the formal research on dog ownership and sleep, which mostly studies adult dogs in established routines. That established research is more mixed than the popular narrative suggests: dog co-sleeping shows a modest objective cost but no clear long-term harm, and much depends on your own baseline stress and sleep environment, as covered in anxiety keeping you awake at night.
References
- The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime: The effects of pet-human co-sleeping and bedsharing on sleep dimensions of children and adolescents. Sleep Health. 2021.
- Association between pet ownership and sleep in the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS). Scientific Reports. 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87080-7.
- Bolstad CJ, et al. Dog Tired: A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Relation Between Dog and/or Cat Ownership and Owners' Sleep. Journal of Sleep Research. 2026. DOI: 10.1111/jsr.70188.
- Human-Animal Co-Sleeping: An Actigraphy-Based Assessment of Dogs' Impacts on Women's Nighttime Movements. PMCID: PMC7070703.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice.