diff --git a/datasette/actor_auth_cookie.py b/datasette/actor_auth_cookie.py
index 41f33fe9..f3a0f306 100644
--- a/datasette/actor_auth_cookie.py
+++ b/datasette/actor_auth_cookie.py
@@ -5,14 +5,9 @@ from http.cookies import SimpleCookie
 
 @hookimpl
 def actor_from_request(datasette, request):
-    cookies = SimpleCookie()
-    cookies.load(
-        dict(request.scope.get("headers") or []).get(b"cookie", b"").decode("utf-8")
-    )
-    if "ds_actor" not in cookies:
+    if "ds_actor" not in request.cookies:
         return None
-    ds_actor = cookies["ds_actor"].value
     try:
-        return datasette.unsign(ds_actor, "actor")
+        return datasette.unsign(request.cookies["ds_actor"], "actor")
     except BadSignature:
         return None
diff --git a/datasette/utils/asgi.py b/datasette/utils/asgi.py
index 24398b77..960532ca 100644
--- a/datasette/utils/asgi.py
+++ b/datasette/utils/asgi.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from mimetypes import guess_type
 from urllib.parse import parse_qs, urlunparse, parse_qsl
 from pathlib import Path
 from html import escape
+from http.cookies import SimpleCookie
 import re
 import aiofiles
 
@@ -44,6 +45,12 @@ class Request:
     def host(self):
         return self.headers.get("host") or "localhost"
 
+    @property
+    def cookies(self):
+        cookies = SimpleCookie()
+        cookies.load(self.headers.get("cookie", ""))
+        return {key: value.value for key, value in cookies.items()}
+
     @property
     def path(self):
         if self.scope.get("raw_path") is not None:
diff --git a/docs/internals.rst b/docs/internals.rst
index 68a35312..b3ad623f 100644
--- a/docs/internals.rst
+++ b/docs/internals.rst
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ The request object is passed to various plugin hooks. It represents an incoming
 ``.headers`` - dictionary (str -> str)
     A dictionary of incoming HTTP request headers.
 
+``.cookies`` - dictionary (str -> str)
+    A dictionary of incoming cookies
+
 ``.host`` - string
     The host header from the incoming request, e.g. ``latest.datasette.io`` or ``localhost``.