Can I Sleep With My Bearded Dragon? Some Facts That Will Make You Avoid This

If you are a proud owner of a reptile, such as a bearded dragon, for example, you will want to spend all your free time with the pet. This lovely creature will become your best friend and will require a lot of attention which will grow into loving care. According to statistics, owners of bearded dragons tend to love their pets even more over time. They form a tender bond with their animals.

Although beardies may look really strong and self-sufficient, they are very tender and vulnerable. So, sometimes, we just cause a lot of pain and suffering to them when we don’t care about simple rules of caring about these animals. We want to clear this point: can you sleep with your bearded dragon in one bed?

Today, we’ll be speaking about the following:

Bearded dragons and their sleeping habits.
Why sleeping near a bearded dragon is a bad idea?
What can cause injuries to your bearded dragon and to you?
Can you kill your beardie when sleeping in one bed with it?
Why beardies will love sleeping with you?

Let’s get started!

Important facts about beardies’ sleep

First of all, we know that beardies are good sleepers. They will need at least 10 hours of calm sleep every day. Some of them will sleep 14 hours a day and will feel great thanks to their healthy sleep.

These animals need calm sleep. They will not restore their energy if they are being pushed and moved all the way during the night. Of course, they will wake up every time something moves around. Unless it is another bearded dragon they have already used to. And this will make their sleep disastrous.

Here are some extremely important things you should remember:

your beardie needs a lot of calm sleep, much more than an average person can handle, that’s why your dragon should sleep in its enclosure;
the sleeping place should be the same every night – any changes in their environment will cause a lot of stress for your animals;
these creatures will need to be warmed up during their sleep – that’s why every vet will recommend you a heat lamp in your enclosure;
bearded dragons will not feel danger when they sleep, they may experience suffocation and die in their sleep without waking up if something goes wrong;
beardies will require silence – they will not be able to sleep well if they hear phone calls, alarms, and other sounds you may have in your room;
sleep is extremely important for your beardie – these guys depend much on the energy they get from their long sleep.

Beardies will only sleep well when it’s dark in the room. They will need complete darkness to feel OK at night. If you have any lamps in your bedroom, this is a bad place for putting the enclosure. Or you will need to cover the enclosure with a thick blackout fabric every night. Otherwise, your beardie will have very sensitive sleep and will not restore any energy at all. This may even lead to health problems and, eventually, to the early death of your reptile.

Please remember that you have to care about your pet. Learn all the sleeping habits of the animal and consult a vet if you need some help.

Sleeping with a bearded dragon in one bed – what can go wrong?

So many things can go wrong that we will not have enough space on this page to describe all the problems. But we’ll try to make a shorter list just to give you the idea of how you can harm your pet and yourself just by making bad decisions about sleep.

All vets will tell you that sleeping in one bad with animals is not the best idea. Maybe, cats and dogs are OK for this, but your reptiles should only sleep in their enclosures.

Here’s what can happen:

You may move at night and put your arm or leg onto your animal. This will cause suffocation or you will just hurt the beardie because your part of the body is quite heavy for this tender animal.
The beardie can wake up at night and be very stressed because the environment is not familiar to it. That’s why the beardie can attack you, start biting and hurting you all the ways it can.
The bearded dragon can also fall off the bed and get injuries. For example, you may move the beardie when moving your arm in your sleep. This will cause health problems and huge stress for your animal.
Your pet will wake up many times at night because it is used to calm sleep in the enclosure. This will result in poor sleep and a bad mood for your animal. If it happens every night, the pet will be very stressed and will have problems with health.
Animals love sleeping when they feel safe. In the enclosure, your beardie will choose an appropriate hide for this. But in your bed, the beardie will not find any hides. That’s why it may not even fall asleep and be stressed all night.

So, we suppose these factors are enough for you to give up the idea of sleeping in one bad with your bearded dragon. Unless you have so huge enclosure for your reptile that you can sleep there (joke, of course).

We’ve asked vets and they expressed very strong support for this approach. They all said that you have to sleep in your bed while your reptile has to sleep in its enclosure. Also, they all agreed that sleeping with your bearded dragon in one bed may be dangerous for both you and your animal.

How can you kill your beardie during sleep?

Unfortunately (or fortunately) during sleep a person can’t control all their movements and actions. Our brain turns to the mode when it doesn’t percept information from outside and is concentrated on rest and recharging. So, you can move all around your bed, especially if you dream about something active and engaging.

Your beardie also doesn’t control any of the actions. In most cases, the bearded dragon will just sleep without moving much. At some point, you can kick the tender animal, push it to the edge of the bed, put your hand or leg on it, or just lie over it. In most of these cases, the danger of killing your animal appears. The dragon may just suffocate or get big injuries that will lead to death.

Please avoid sleeping in one bed with your reptiles, especially with bearded dragons. They are very tender and actually helpless when it comes to aggression towards them.

Will bearded dragons love sleeping with you?

Yes, they will probably love the idea if they have already been in your house for a long time. They get used to certain people, odors, voices. And they relax when you are around. So, they may feel good when you just put the dragon on the bed. They may feel relaxed and even fall asleep. But they don’t know what kind of danger is there for them.

Actually, bearded dragons will hate sleeping near you if they are still new to your house. They will be stressed, they will try to get away as soon as possible. Before you start taking your dragons on your hands, you should just let them get used to the new enclosure and to the new environment. In some weeks, the animal will be friendlier with you. But anyway, falling asleep right near your dragon will still be very dangerous.

What about emotional health?

Your bearded dragon is a very tender and sensitive animal. They look like dragons, but their souls are much more vulnerable than they can seem. These dragons need your protection, not only physical but also emotional.

Here’s what can happen if they don’t get good sleep:

they will be depressed because they will always be sleepy;
dragons will get some hormonal changes in their bodies;
they will fall ill because of all the stress they get daily;
their glands and other parts of the body will not work as they should;
their stress may even lead to a kind of depression;
all these factors may eventually lead to the death of the animal.

As you see, the question of good sleep is extremely important for all bearded dragons. They need to be always under your protection. And if you want to experiment and risk their lives just because you wish to sleep near your animal, this is bad protection and care. Be responsible and ensure the best conditions for your pet.

Final words

When we buy a bearded dragon, we become responsible for the life of this animal. If you don’t want to read the rules and study the way your beardie should live, you better avoid buying this animal. Because it needs your care and protection, it’s a very vulnerable animal with a lot of demands in its life. Be ready to change your routine a little and to check whether your ideas of playing with your pet are safe for the beardie.