Is it really such a bad thing when couples start sleeping apart from one another? Is this a sign that their relationship may be coming to an end? Well, scientists from the University of Michigan say that sleeping apart may actually be the healthier option.
Their research found that when two people sleep together in the same bed it can disrupt their sleep cycles.
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You might be old enough to remember twin beds. Once upon a time, it was considered “racy” and inappropriate to show a married couple lying in the same bed on television. So, when portraying the bedroom a couple was always shown to sleep in separate beds. God forbid a married couple should share the same bed. So, it was not until the 1970s that people could see a couple in bed together – the same bed.
But the television censors may have actually been onto something. Maybe people should have separate beds that can be pushed apart when the time comes to actually sleep. This is because physical contact that continues during sleep can disrupt your sleep pattern and prevent someone from getting a good night’s rest.
More than a third of American adults are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, according to a new study in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Ada Eban-Rothschild, assistant professor in U-M’s Department of Psychology, and colleagues tracked the sleep behavior of mice while in a social context. They noticed that these small rodents seek physical contact prior to sleep initiation and cuddle up during sleep. They further show that cuddling during sleep is driven by an inner motivation for prolonged physical contact, which they termed “somatolonging.”
“The lack of this kind of contact was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which people experienced somatolonging,” Eban-Rothschild said.
Cuddling during sleep doesn’t come without a cost; the mice often disrupt each other’s sleep. Similarly in humans, co-sleeping isn’t always positive, and insomnia can be transmitted between bed partners. So, why do humans and other animals willingly choose situations that might compromise their sleep? Researchers don’t yet know.
On the other hand, co-sleeping individuals show synchronization in multiple neurophysiological measures, including the timing of sleep/wake onset and REM sleep. In the study, the researchers used advanced wireless devices and video recordings to simultaneously monitor multiple mice within a group for 24 hours.
The jury is still out, however. People are not mice and so it may be a while before we have any definitive answers on whether or not it is better to sleep alone.
