The case for sleeping in separate beds

Sean Illing Do people sleep better when they sleep alone? Wendy Troxel We have a limited amount of research on this topic but it does show pretty clearly that people sleep worse while sharing a bed as compared to sleeping alone. But if you ask those people, “Do you prefer to share a bed with your partner or sleep alone?” most will say they prefer to share a bed. So there’s this discrepancy between what our objective measures show and the subjective experience of sleep quality. Sean Illing Even if most people aren’t aware of this research, they should know from experience that they sleep better alone, so why don’t they? Why do we insist on sleeping together? Wendy Troxel It speaks to our social nature. Sleep is a very vulnerable state and we derive a sense of safety and security when someone’s next to us, and that feeling can actually facilitate good, healthy sleep. So in some cases there may be real psychological benefits from sleeping together that for many overwhelm the objective costs of sharing a bed.