Why Is Rest And Good Sleep Important For Pets?

We are used to seeing our pet sleep well and wake up. We wake him up to play with us, to caress him, etc. However, we must be a little careful about our friend’s rest.

Just as people need to sleep a few hours a day, our pets also need their rest time.

Just because we see them sleeping during the day does not mean that they are lazing around because they have slept at night. Possibly they need rest.

A different cycle to sleep

We will begin to understand the importance of rest in our dogs considering that they have different sleep cycles than ours. Depending on how old they are, they sleep more or less.

Rest in dogs gives them several benefits:

• Good humor. Although sometimes we do not believe it, dogs have their own character and personality. The lack of rest will alter their emotions and cause the dog to be unfriendly or even aggressive.

• Energy. Bad sleep drains energy from dogs and people. If our friend does not rest properly, he will not have the energy to do his daily exercise and this could cause his heart to race or even become overweight if the animal refuses to exercise.

• Inner peace. The necessary rest will ensure that the animal is calm and does not feel anxiety or internal nervousness and is restless all day.

• A proper function in your body. As with people, dogs need different functions of their body to work during the hours of sleep. Adequate rest will allow this to happen in the case of your pet as well.

An ideal space for the dog to sleep well

• Where your bed is is very important. If your bed is very far from ours, you will surely spend the night trying to reach us. This will create stress and anxiety, and you will not be able to rest well.

• The bed has to be of the right size, so that the dog can turn and lie down whole and when curled up it feels protected. We can try different textures, harder or softer, and let the animal itself decide which one they like best.

• Lighting for sleeping. It can give us the impression that the light does not affect our pet. But it is not true. They have their tastes and preferences with light. To find out which one he prefers, we will observe where he normally goes to sleep, if in a place with light or on the contrary he prefers to do so in darker areas such as between sofas or under the bed. That way we will know the appropriate luminosity.

• Sleep cycles. When we see that our dog sleeps, we will let him sleep. Although we think it is strange to see you sleep several hours at night and several hours in the day, but this is how your body asks you to do it.

• We must not wake up our friend for no reason.

• As for the time, his rest oscillates in an average of 12-16 hours of sleep. And in the case of cats in an average of about 16-20 hours. As with human beings, the hours of rest are as important as the quality of rest.

• If they are working dogs or those that do sports or excursions, with more reason we must regulate and control their time and space to sleep well, since this way we will be taking care of their physical and mental health.

Good sleep affects the body

Adequate rest helps the animal’s body to function properly. If the dog has slept poorly and has not had enough rest, it will be without energy and will not have the strength to go for a walk and do the necessary exercise to stay fit and healthy.

Another consequence of not sleeping well can be overweight problems if the pet takes a habit of not exercising as his body requires.

The daily work of a dog can be the following: 42% of the time dedicated to activities such as eating, walking and even resting without sleeping well and 58% for sleep.

Their sleep is in an average of 14 hours, although they do it in a different way from humans, that is, not on the fly, but they sleep in periods of two or three hours several times a day.