Are you familiar with the saying “happy wife, happy life”?
Well, it turns out it may have more truth to it than we thought – especially when it comes to bedtime!
A new study suggests that when the wife is happier in their marriage, couples are more likely to sleep in sync. In other words, when she’s satisfied, they’re more likely to be asleep or awake at the same time.
Researchers found that couples who share a bed are generally in sync about 75% of the time, meaning they sleep and wake up together. But, this percentage gets even higher when the wife feels more content in the marriage.
Why is this interesting, you may wonder? Well, sleep is usually studied at an individual level, meaning scientists mostly look at how each person sleeps on their own.
But as Heather Gunn, PhD, a scholar from the University of Pittsburgh and the study’s lead author points out, for most adults, sleep is a shared behavior with their partners. So, the way couples sleep together might be influenced by and even affect how well their relationship is doing.
This fascinating study was recently shared online in a supplement of the Sleep journal. It was also presented at SLEEP 2014, a big meeting for sleep professionals, on June 4th in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The study’s findings are based on data collected from 46 couples who completed relationship assessments. Their sleep patterns were tracked using a method called actigraphy over a 10-day period.
Actigraphy is a non-invasive way of monitoring human rest and activity cycles – basically, it’s a high-tech way of keeping track of when you’re awake or asleep!
Gunn concluded, “The sleep of married couples is more in sync on a minute-by-minute basis than the sleep of random individuals.”
So, who you share your bed with might impact not just when you sleep, but how you sleep. Now that gives a whole new meaning to ‘sleeping together’, doesn’t it?
