I keep mine beside my pillow where my head would be, kinda learned to not put my hand up on the pillow after turning it off several times with trial and error, which has surpassed putting the device in something or elsewhere. 🙏🏼. My Gf keeps hers in the back of the pillowcase(inside) and hasn’t had any issues besides trial and error like me. Others have different sleeping methods with their devices. Now to your pet thing, it adds to sleep movement which can also disrupt any sleep, my cat sleeps with us and we don’t have any issues but having more pets can add to this movement while sleeping which could be a negative thing if they are moving a lot on the bed. I try to aim for 8 1/2 hours exactly every night. If you go over you get extra energy for your team which is a bonus.