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1) Background: Chronic pain is a significant and prevalent condition in many industrialized nations. Pain and sleep's reciprocal nature suggests that interventions to improve sleep may decrease pain symptoms. Little attention has been paid to the influence that owning a pet dog has on the pain/sleep relationship. Typical advice to remove pets from the bedroom negates the possible positive benefit of human-animal co-sleeping. Aim: To investigate pain patients' perceived impact of pet dog ownership on sleep. (2) Methods: We carried out a content analysis of interview data focused on the impact of pet dog ownership on sleep. The qualitative dataset comes from a subgroup of participants in a larger study examining the pain patient/canine relationship. This subgroup of participants from the larger study was asked, "Does your dog have a positive or negative impact on your sleep?" The data were thematically coded using an iterative approach. (3) Findings: Codes included: companionship; physical presence/'cuddles'; routine/schedule; distraction from anxiety/worry at night; reassuring/protective presence; active intervention to keep participant safe; daytime activity to promote sleeping at night; and reciprocal concern for the sleep of the pet dog. (4) Conclusions: Pet dogs may play important roles in helping people with chronic pain achieve sleep onset and maintenance. Removing the dog to improved sleep could be counter-productive and lead to additional sleep-related issues.

Introduction:The determinants of Veterans' and their family members' health and well-being are compromised by sleep deficiency (SD). The use of long-term drug therapies for treatment is controversial, and the evidence to support positive outcomes is limited. Instead, guidelines recommend non-pharmacological sleep interventions for SD. Hand self-shiatsu (HSS) is a drug-free, pragmatic, easy-to-learn self-management technique that provides patients with an intervention they can actively control, thus contributing to feelings of self-effi cacy. The objective of this work was to examine whether a prescribed HSS intervention would result in improved objectively and subjectively measured sleep. Methods: This was a non-randomized controlled study. Objective (actigraphy) measures and standardized self-report questionnaires were applied at baseline and at four and eight weeks post-intervention. Participants also completed a detailed sleep log. Results: No signifi cant differences were found in the actigraphy sleep dimensions across the three measurement time points in either the intervention or the control group. With respect to the self-report measures, a signifi cant change was detected for sleep disturbance (  2 2 = 10 [ n = 25], p = 0.007) for the intervention group, and 77% stated they would recommend HSS to others. A significant change in two self-report measures was noted in the control group, a potential artifact of the sub-optimal recruitment to this group imposed by coronavirus disease 2019 restrictions. Discussion: Although actigraphy data did not support the hypothesis, the self-report measures and qualitative information from participants' end-of-study interviews indicated endorsement of HSS for the management of sleep difficulties and increased self-effi cacy.

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