<story><title>Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners</title><url>https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253133</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gcheong</author><text>&amp;quot;Sixty percent of cat owners sleep with their cats, which may enhance their sense of security and improve their quality of sleep&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Maybe, but now only between the hours of 10pm - 5:30am, for me anyway.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gilbetron</author><text>We learned years ago that our cats get put in the lower part of our house with the door closed at night. We felt bad about it, but being able to sleep all night made up for it.&lt;p&gt;Quick story: for several nights, I&amp;#x27;d wake up in the middle of the night with horrendous stomach pains. I was thinking I needed to see the doctor it was so painful. Then on the fourth night when the pain hit I woke up fast enough to notice our cat walking off of my stomach. Turns out he (a 15 lb cat) had been jumping off a shelf through the air about 6 feet and landing directly on my gut. This was instrumental in the decision to keep them away from us ;)</text></comment>
<story><title>Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners</title><url>https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253133</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gcheong</author><text>&amp;quot;Sixty percent of cat owners sleep with their cats, which may enhance their sense of security and improve their quality of sleep&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Maybe, but now only between the hours of 10pm - 5:30am, for me anyway.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eyelidlessness</author><text>My most recent cat, who sadly died a couple years ago, was unusually snuggly. We slept in physical contact, often spooning some or all of the night, for most of the 12 years I had her. She was particularly well adapted to me, my habits and my schedule… I was very fortunate!&lt;p&gt;I had a really rough bout of insomnia, along with a bad mental health stretch not long after she died. I didn’t make the connection until recently that sleep without my cat might have contributed.&lt;p&gt;But now I have a particularly snuggly pup, which has improved my quality of sleep beyond even that previous high point. We definitely have to adapt more to each other’s schedule. But it’s surprisingly mutual adaptation, and surprisingly malleable.&lt;p&gt;Sorry for the long personal response. I have no idea how much wiggle room there is with your cat(s), but I hope you find the benefits of the relationship worth whatever tradeoffs come with the sleep schedule.</text></comment>