Our love for our pets is pretty unparalleled.
They take up a lot of space in our hearts and pretty much get whatever they want – including the right to sleep in our beds with us.
After all, we want to shower them with endless love and attention.
But is this love costing us intimacy in bed with a partner?
New research suggests that it is, with 41% of Brits saying that allowing their furry friends to sleep on the bed has affected their sex life in some way.
Nearly one million adults in the UK have actually admitted to using their pet sleeping on the bed as an excuse not to have sex with their partner.
Of course, you don’t need to have an excuse to not want to have sex, but sometimes it’s an easy fallback if you’re not super in the mood.
Our emotions where our four-legged friends are concerned are also to blame, with one in nine people feeling too guilty to move their pet when they find them napping in their bedroom.
In fact, only a fifth of us will actually have sex if we can actually bring themselves to move our snoozing pet from the bed.
But it turns out that women are much more guilty of this than men.
Double the number of women (14%) admitted to having less sex because they feel guilty moving their sleeping pet from the bed than men (7%).
Women were also found to be reserving more quality time for their pets (eight hours per day on average), than they are for their other halves (six hours).
Men allotted six hours of quality time for pets compared to seven hours for partners.
More than a third of Brits also admitted to cuddling their beloved pet more often than they do their partner. A further quarter even admitted to saying the words ‘I love you’ more frequently to their cats or dogs.
A small percentage of Brits did, however, praise their sleepy pets because they’ve been forced to get more creative with their intimate acts.
About 6% said that they’ve had sex in different places around the home because the cat or dog was sleeping on the bed.
But in which parts of the UK are the sex lives of Brits most affected by their sleeping four-legged friends?
It’s actually Belfast, as 61% of residents admitted to their sex lives changing due to their pet.
Glasgow and Manchester were joint second at 55% of people’s sex lives being hindered, while 47% of Londoners admitted the same.
Cities where residents sex lives are most affected by their pet sleeping on their bed:
- Belfast 61%
- Glasgow 55%
- Manchester 55%
- Edinburgh 48%
- London 47%
- Bristol 44%
- Leeds 41%
- Cardiff 40%
- Birmingham 33%
- Nottingham 33%
- Sheffield 32%
- Newcastle 30%
- Southampton 28%
- Liverpool 26%
- Norwich 17%
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