One of the most commonly used search times by which people find my blog is "service dogs for insomnia."
Here's the thing. Dogs may well help some people sleep. I was hoping Isaac would help me sleep, but so far I can't really say that he has. However, in order for a dog to be a service dog, you have to be disabled and the dog has to be trained to perform tasks that mitigate your disability.
I know how miserable insomnia can make you. Believe me, I know. But it's not usually considered a disability.
Beyond that, I'm not sure what tasks you might train a dog to do that would help you sleep. It might help you sleep just to have a dog sleeping beside you, but dogs don't have to be trained to sleep. That's not a task.
So for the most part, one would not get a service dog for insomnia. One might get a service dog for other things and find that an additional benefit of having the dog is improved sleep, or one might simply get a pet dog and find that having a pet dog helps with sleep.
Service dog needs to be redefined as a term or at least have a subcategory. Insomnia may not directly be a disability but the lack of functioning it causes the next day everyday resulting in loss of productivity car accidents decreased cognitive function less energy for physical labor ...that's not a disability? Having that dog there for some people makes a world of difference in quality of sleep and life.
ReplyDeleteHaving insomnia sure can interfere with one's ability to function well. I know that from personal experience. I've never heard of it being considered a disability, but maybe some doctors do consider it disabling. I think in most cases, insomnia is a symptom of another condition, like PTSD or fibromyalgia, and those conditions might be disabling. But generally insomnia itself isn't. That doesn't mean it never can be but I've never heard of someone being on disability for insomnia, for example.
DeleteAs far as having a service dog for insomnia, supposing someone was disabled by insomnia, the dog would have to be trained to do tasks that mitigate that disability. So if having a dog with you at night helped you sleep, that would be wonderful, but dogs often sleep with their owners, that's not something they are trained to do. I can't think of any tasks a dog could be trained to do to mitigate insomnia, but maybe there are some I'm not thinking of.
I would assume the dog would do those tasks when you were at home, trying to sleep, though, and not when you were at work or grocery shopping or whatever. So you still wouldn't really need a service dog, not one that would go everywhere with you. What would a dog do for you while you were dining in a restaurant to mitigate your insomnia?
Mind you, I am not saying a dog cannot help you sleep. That would be a pet, though, not a service dog.
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