Dog sleeping away from their owner: what a polysomnography study measures
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
A dog boarding with a pet sitter closes its eyes, but does it actually sleep as well? A Hungarian non-invasive EEG study lets us move past guesswork and look at what really changes in sleep structure depending on whether the owner is present. Our bedding guidance is gathered in the dog bedding and habitat section.
Contents · 5 sections
One night with the owner, one night with a stranger
Luca Baranyai, Ivaylo Iotchev, Ferenc Gombos and Anna Kis published, in 2025 in the journal Animals, a non-invasive polysomnography study in family dogs. Each dog was recorded twice, in counterbalanced order: once falling asleep with their owner nearby, once with an unfamiliar but friendly experimenter. Every twenty-second sleep epoch was manually scored as wakefulness, drowsiness, non-REM sleep, or REM sleep.
What the owner's presence changes
With the owner present, dogs fell asleep faster, had better sleep efficiency (fewer awakenings and less time lying awake), and spent more time in deep non-REM sleep. Without the owner — with the unfamiliar person — sleep onset latency lengthened, sleep efficiency worsened, and time spent in deep sleep dropped markedly.
What this study does not show
The protocol compares the owner to an unfamiliar but friendly person, not to a total absence of human presence or to a group boarding kennel: it says nothing about sleep in a shared kennel setting. It covers a single laboratory night, not the gradual adjustment of a dog left with the same familiar person over several consecutive days. Nor does it show that a known, trusted pet sitter would produce the same negative effect as a stranger encountered for the first time.
What it changes before an absence
- Favour someone the dog already knows (a neighbour, family member, or regular pet sitter) over a complete stranger for a multi-day stay.
- Keep the dog's usual bed at the caregiver's home when possible, rather than a brand-new bed in an entirely different setting.
- Do not judge how well a stay went purely by how calm the dog looks on return: a dog can appear rested without having gone through as much deep sleep as at home, as our article on dogs sleeping in the bedroom or on the bed discusses.
- Build in an adjustment period before a real departure, on the same principle as a dedicated resting spot: see our guide to the quiet resting spot for a dog left home alone.
Frequently asked questions
Does a dog necessarily sleep badly at a pet sitter's?
Not necessarily: the study compares a stranger to an owner, not a familiar, trusted pet sitter to an owner. Familiarity appears to be the key factor, not simply who the person is.
Does sleep quality worsen from the very first night?
The study measures a single laboratory night; it says nothing about how sleep evolves over several consecutive nights with the same person.
Should every stay with an unfamiliar person be avoided?
That is not the conclusion: it is rather an argument for favouring familiarity and preparing the transition in advance. Find all our guides on the dog hub.
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This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Dogs universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.