Sleeping Pet Peeves That Can Make You Howl

Sleeping Pet Peeves That Can Make You Howl

hogging blanket.jpgFEW THINGS ARE more annoying than getting jarred awake just as you’re drifting off to sleep. This is doubly true if you’re one of the millions of Americans suffering from sleep conditions, like insomnia, sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome. When it’s already difficult to get a quality night’s sleep, things that might otherwise seem trivial can suddenly feel catastrophic. We’ve rounded up a list of some of the most common things that drive people absolutely batty when they’re trying to sleep.

Your Phone

March 5.jpgThese days, most of us are pretty attached to our phones, and it can be hard to let go of that security blanket by turning them off at night or stowing them in another room. The majority of adults and a stunning 80 percent of those in the millennial age bracket report sleeping with their phone at their bedside. Not only can this habit ramp up anxiety, but it can also disrupt your shut-eye and lead to sleep conditions like insomnia. Pesky rings and dings from late-night phone calls, texts that could have waited until morning, and random alerts are among the most common tech-related sleep disturbances.

Your Partner

Someone else’s sleeping habits can be one of the most annoying things to deal with in your own bed. Our romantic partners are one often the biggest source of little behaviors, like grinding their teeth at night, that can add up to annoy the daylights out of us. Psychology Today ranks 50 common marital pet peeves, and several of them involve pesky bedtime behaviors:

    • Making noise while you’re sleeping
    • Blanket hogging
    • Snoring (of course)
    • Abusing the snooze button
    • Trying to initiate sex after you’re asleep
Your Pets

dog sleeping with man.jpgTalk about pet peeves. While it can be rewarding, letting pets sleep in the bed is not without its drawbacks. Here are some of the top ways our furry friends can wreck a good night’s sleep:

    • Meowing or barking, especially for no reason
    • Walking on you (bonus points for stepping on your face)
    • Acting out a dream by yipping and twitching
    • Stink bomb – passing gas that’s so stinky, it wakes you up
    • The “herk” – that awful noise pets make right before they throw up
Your Neighbors

While good fences might make good neighbors, they don’t offer much in the way of sound-proofing your home from the house next door. Whether it’s the ceaseless bark of the new puppy that gets left home alone too often or that weird guy who only mows after dark or first thing in the morning on weekends, the people in our neighborhood provide a fair share of bedtime pet peeves.

Your Sleep Environment

Some of our worst pet peeves come from our own sleep environment. Nestling down into the covers only to find your kid or partner has left behind crummy evidence of their illicit snack can enrage even the saintliest among us. Other sources of annoyance in the bedroom include mosquitos buzzing and that literal early bird that’s way too chipper at the crack of dawn.

Some of these aggravations have fairly easy solutions. If your pets keep you up at night, for example, you can banish them to another room. Others, such as annoying neighbors, you may just have to learn to live with.

Did we miss something? Share your biggest bedtime pet peeves with us in the comments below!

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