The stuff of dreams: A surprising number of adults sleep with plush animals

Tara McFeeters sleeps in a crowded bed.

There’s a dory fish; a beet named Claudia; Gordon, the shark; and an octopus called Chester.

“I love, love sleeping with stuffed animals,” said McFeeters, 23, of Northeast Philadelphia, a senior studying sociology remotely at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

“As I grew, the animals made me feel safe, even though the world and all the crime in it don’t. The stuffed animals became my emotional support, like petting my dog.

“Every woman in college has them — for sure, so many Gen Z people all do.”

Combining whimsy with a soothing, almost therapeutic effect, stuffed animals are not just for kids. They beat back anxiety, hasten sleep, and make the world a little more tolerable for grown-ups who maintain menageries of the creatures in their beds.

“It adds a little emotional texture to life,” said Max Genecov, a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania who has written about stuffed animals.

“And these days, young people are much more open about talking about having animals, and about taking a transitional object — something from childhood to adulthood — comfortably,” Genecov said.

Erin Hennessey, 23, a hair stylist in Warminster, said she sleeps with her three plush animals “way more than I thought I would.” She added, “I got a weighted green dinosaur, and the heaviness helps me with my anxiety. Even if I’m not going to bed, I just hold them, and it helps.”

Various surveys show that a significant number of U.S. adults have slept or continue to sleep with stuffed animals, most of them Gen Zers (ages 9 to 24) and millennials (25 to 40).

In a report on the popularity of the “stuffed and plush toys” product category, the research firm Future Market Insights estimated that the now $9 billion market will reach $17 billion by 2032.

A 2017 poll commissioned by Build-A-Bear Workshop, which, as a seller of stuffed animals, obviously benefits from consumer familiarity, says 40% of adults said they still slept with a such objects.

A possibly more objective survey of 6,000 adults by YouGov released last month revealed that 23% of grown-ups have regularly slept with a stuffed animal.

Among them, 25% are women and — though they might not openly admit it —22% are men; 26% are Democrats, while 24% are Republicans; 35% are Gen Z, while another 35% are millennials, leaving 14% Gen Xers and 6% baby boomers. Finally, 22% are white, 24% are Black, and 33% are Hispanic.

People are loyal to their inanimate pets, sometimes for decades.

“It’s embarrassing,” said Rachel Feldman of Glenside, who works in an insurance company, “but I’m 31, and I still sleep with the same teddy bear I’ve had since I was a baby.”

Wildly popular these days are a specific group of stuffed animals called Squishmallows — egg-shaped, extremely cushy, so-called plush companions filled with polyester fiber and manufactured by Kelly Toys Holdings LLC of Los Angeles.

There are about 1,000 Squishmallow characters, each given a name and a backstory.

Dolan, the red dinosaur, comes with a tag saying that a perfect day for the creature “is one where he can play a full 18 holes of golf, with unlimited lemonade. He knows that good posture is the trick to getting a hole in one.”

Squishmallows run from $3 to $50 apiece and became favorites during the uncertain early days of the pandemic.

They continue to garner loyal fans, with people on social media fueling the ardor. Widely followed TikTok personalities such as Charli D’Amelio and Carter Kench are credited with hastening the demand for Squishmallows by showing off their eclectic clusters.

Many health professionals are on board with adults interacting with plush toys.

Doctors in the Philippines found in 2016 that stuffed animals can be a source of comfort in group therapy.

A 2013 article in Psychological Science showed that touching an object such as a teddy bear “can soothe existential fears.”

Stuffed animals also have real value in helping individuals sleep.

“People fall asleep most easily when they’re comfortable and relaxed,” said clinical psychologist Jennifer Martin, a sleep expert at the University of California, Los Angeles. “And stuffed animals make them feel that way.”

Indira Gurubhagavatula, a Penn sleep medicine doctor, said that stress-triggered chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisol “cause the brain to remain alert and make it impossible to fall asleep. However, having a familiar object that immediately gives a sense of safety, comfort, and relaxation can help people fall asleep faster.”

For Ellen Melchiondo, 58, of Titusville, in Mercer County, N.J., her stuffed animal has intensely personal meaning. It’s actually a pillow the size and shape of her euthanized rat terrier, Jegger, bearing his photograph.

“I can’t not have Jegger with me,” said Melchiondo, who volunteers her time helping incarcerated women in Pennsylvania. “I talk to him every night and every day.”

While the benefits of living with stuffed animals are clear, there could be some problems.

Amanda Schwarz, 27, of East Passyunk, a manager for an ad agency, said she’s been sleeping with the same stuffed pig for around 20 years.

But, she added, now she is “lowkey having a crisis for what to do when I move in with my boyfriend.”

The Inquirer informally polled a few stuffed-animal lovers about that issue. The resulting opinion was unanimous:

Man and pig must learn to coexist, because true love lasts forever.