When you or your spouse picture the house of your dreams, do you imagine each having your own master bedrooms?
If you answered yes, you're not alone.
According to a survey from The Better Sleep Council, over a quarter of adults in relationships said they sleep better alone and 20 percent said they wish they could have separate master bedrooms.
Although women reported being more sensitive to their sleep environment, both men and women attributed their poor sleep to things like snoring or the tossing and turning of their partner or spouse. So for many couples, the obvious solution is for one person to vacate to a separate location.
Fortunately, there are some reasons separation at night could be beneficial for your relationship.
An infographic released by The Better Sleep Council said insufficient sleep can lead to marital dissatisfaction, and researchers have said quality of sleep is key to good relationships. Not to mention the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has named insufficient sleep a public health problem.
But before you move your blankets permanently to the guest bedroom or the sofa, there may be benefits to braving the kicking and snoring of your partner at night.
"The psychological benefits we get having closeness at night trump the objective costs of sleeping with a partner," said Wendy M. Troxel, an assistant professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, to the Wall Street Journal.
According to the article, shared sleep can promote feelings of safety and securitythat reduce stress and anxiety. Better sleep leads to better relationship interactions the next day for women, and inversely, better interactions lead to better sleep for men. Troxel said the benefits are still there even if sharing makes us move around more at night.
Clinical psychologist and marriage counselor William F. Harley Jr. told CNN he felt "sleeping together is a very, very important part of being integrated with each other."
For people having trouble sharing beds, the National Sleep Foundation has suggested things like purchasing a bigger or higher quality mattress. More space or a mattress that can absorb more of the motion of your partner can be beneficial for sleepers sensitive to movement. Each person using a separate blanket can keep one person from uncovering the other and also lets partners better control their own temperature.
