Does your pet sleep in your bed? Beware, it can be dangerous!

Do you ever sleep with your pet in bed or does such a warm and soft animal help you sleep? Sleeping with a pet can be very nice, but it is not recommended at all. This is evident from the research conducted by RIVM.

Sleeping with a dog or cat can be very bad for your health and even dangerous. This is why RIVM advises Veronica inside the morning show Don’t do it. “They are not children, the animals belong in the basket or in the box,” researcher Paul Overgau says.

Sleeping with a dangerous pet

Animals can carry all kinds of diseases or parasites. When you sleep in bed with an animal, there is a good chance that you will take over and could become very ill. Cats and dogs take all kinds of things inside them, especially under their feet. You can think of tube bacteria, but also, for example, roundworm eggs. So exhaustion is not always without risk, For both humans and pets.

These worms can make you blind. Then there are the parasites. “Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites still occur regularly. They can all jump to humans and transmit diseases as well. Just think of Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks,” Overgau says. Infections such as fungal skin infections also pose a risk to humans.

Do not let pets in the bedroom

However, thirty percent of the Dutch occasionally sleep with a pet. Thirteen percent do this every night. “It’s not fresh and it’s not hygienic. They don’t wipe their feet when going in. And then you can lie under the duvet with your shoes on.”

Despite all the risks of sleeping with a pet, Overgaauw especially recommends acting wisely. “It’s not shocking and it won’t happen often, but keep them in the living room or the kitchen. Not in the bedroom.”

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