Man's best friend: A scientific study has shown that dogs make you happier

Research shows that stroking, playing and walking stimulate brain activity related to relaxation and attention. The study was conducted on 30 people and Results in the specialized journal “PLoS One” published.

Dogs lower stress levels

The research showed that participants were clearly happier than before when walking, playing, hugging and petting. During the studies, participants wore electrodes to record electrical activity in the brain.

Researchers were able to prove increased alpha wave activity when playing with dogs. These brain waves indicate a relaxed and awake state. But when stroking, beta waves increase, which is a sign of increased concentration. All examinations showed a low level of stress.

Incidentally, the results are not entirely new. At the beginning of 2020, Christy L. Hoffman, a professor of animal behavior at Canisius University in Buffalo (New York), and her team, for example, investigatedHow does having a dog in bed affect a woman's nighttime movements?.

To do this, data was collected using a wrist measuring device and then compared with the statements of study participants. Hoffman found that women were three times more likely to move from a passive to an active conscious state if their dog had moved in the previous minute. Interestingly, the women only reported that their dog disturbed their sleep on 22 of the 124 nights studied.

“Given how little participants recalled dog-related sleep disturbances compared to the amount of dog movement we observed during the night, it appears that people did not consciously associate their nights of poor sleep with their dogs' nocturnal activities,” Hoffman noted. . “This paradox suggests that dogs fulfill a psychological need for safety and security during sleep, despite the disturbance they cause.”