Humans evolved to share beds – how your sleeping companions may affect you now

By Goffredina Spanò, Lecturer in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Kingston University
Gina Mason, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, Brown University

Recent research on animal sleep behaviour has revealed that sleep is influenced by the animals around them. Olive baboons, for instance, sleep less as group sizes increase, while mice can synchronise their rapid eye movement (REM) cycles.

In western society, many people expect to sleep alone, if not with a romantic partner. But as with other group-living animals, human co-sleeping is common, despite some cultural…

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