What Is A “Sleep Divorce” And Could It Help Your Marriage?

In most cases, it’s a foregone conclusion that married couples share the same bed. However, more and more couples are declaring a “sleep divorce” from their partner and instead of sharing the same bed, they are sleeping alone. At present, about 1.4% of couples sleep in separate rooms or separate beds from their partners. Over half of those who admitted to sleeping in separate rooms claim that it has improved their quality of sleep at night. About 25% of those who experimented with sleeping in separate rooms say that they moved back into bed with their partner.

To be sure, this has nothing to do with being kicked out of bed while you and your partner are having a spat. Instead, it has more to do with improving the quality of your sleep. For those who are light sleepers or restless sleepers or a couple consisting of one restless sleeper and one light sleeper, it could, theoretically, improve the quality of the marriage to separate and sleep in different rooms. However, a third of the couples who tried sleep divorce say that they gave it up because they missed sharing a bed with their partner.

Can sleep divorce help my marriage? 

That depends entirely on the quality of your marriage. In cases where your biggest problem is getting a full night’s sleep, and your partner is keeping you up at night with their restlessness or snoring, it could have a positive impact on your ability to fall and stay asleep at night, which will generally improve your mood and alertness. So, in cases where you have one spouse who is keeping the other spouse up at night, a sleep divorce could forestall or avoid an actual divorce.

That being said, there is a general loss of intimacy that comes from a sleep divorce and as mentioned earlier, a third of the couples who tried sleeping separately ended up going back to sleeping together.

Reasons for a sleep divorce

Restlessness and snoring were not the only reason that couples pursued a sleep divorce. In other cases, couples noted that differences in work schedules contributed to the decision to sleep separately. Different habits as well, such as late-night doom scrolling. Nonetheless, snoring and general restlessness were the number-one reasons for sleeping apart.

A lack of good sleep can have a number of physical repercussions that could impact your health, job performance, and general quality of life. Couples that decided to sleep apart noted that their sleep improved in 52% of cases. That means that in most cases, at least one of the spouses reported that their sleep improved by sleeping apart. So, it sounds like sleep divorce is preferable to a divorce based on the inability to sleep.

Talk to a Tampa, FL Divorce Lawyer Today 

If sleep divorce isn’t working for you, you may be in need of a Tampa divorce attorney. Call Faulkner Law Group, PLLC today to schedule an appointment and we can begin discussing your next moves immediately.

Source:

sciencealert.com/rise-of-the-sleep-divorce-do-humans-actually-sleep-better-alone