Sleeping with your lover really improves your sleep quality!

When you go to bed at night, do you get better sleep if you share a bed with someone else or if you sleep alone?

Scientists have actually studied this and suggest that if you are in a stable marriage, sleeping with your significant other may help you sleep better.

At this point, someone will definitely ask: If someone is sleeping next to you, won’t you be affected by their rolling over, snoring, teeth grinding, etc.? The truth is really different from what you think! Let’s talk about it in detail today.

Image source: pexels

Couple sleeping together

It's really better than sleeping alone

A 2020 study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry[1] pointed out that although couples may make more frequent body movements when sleeping together than when sleeping alone, these body movements do not have a significant impact on sleep quality.

This may be the adaptation of the couple to the movements after a long period of "sleep adjustment". In fact, in addition to being able to adapt to these movements, after the couple's sleep adjustment, even the sleep stages will be synchronized. Both parties may enter deep sleep at about the same time and enter rapid eye movement sleep at about the same time.

The study also found that compared with when couples sleep alone, the REM stage is less fragmented when they sleep together, that is, they have more complete REM sleep.

Compared with solitary sleep (blue bar), the complete and direct synchronization of sleep stages in co-sleeping (red bar) is significantly increased, and even nearly half of the night's sleep is synchronized. Image source: Reference [1]

REM sleep is associated with memory and relief of emotional stress. More complete REM sleep may have a better effect on memory, mental health, and interpersonal communication.

In other words, sleeping together may be more beneficial to mental health and social interaction. A study published in the journal Sleep in 2022 came to a similar conclusion [2].

The study, which looked at the sleep patterns of more than 1,000 adults, found that people who slept with a partner fell asleep faster and slept longer than those who slept alone. They also reported lower self-ratings for depression, anxiety and stress, and less fatigue than those who slept alone.

Another earlier study also found [2] that people are indeed affected by their partner's movements when sleeping with him/her, but compared to sleeping alone, people still have better sleep quality when sleeping with their partner.

If you sleep with your child

The effect is greatly reduced

Although sleeping with a partner can improve sleep quality, the effect may be greatly reduced if you sleep with your children.

A study published in 2022 found that people who often sleep with their children generally feel more prone to insomnia, less energetic, and are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea syndrome (a condition in which breathing stops and breathing weakens during sleep).

Therefore, if conditions permit, it is recommended to sleep in separate beds from your children. Of course, in addition to children, if you have a partner who is too "dishonest" when sleeping, you can also consider sleeping in separate beds.

Studies have found that although normal turning over and moving legs and arms during sleep will not affect sleep quality, if the partner snores too loudly, tosses and turns constantly, and constantly "occupies" space on the bed, such behavior will significantly affect the other half's sleep quality[3].

Sleeping with a stable partner

Easily get better sleep quality

When sleeping with your significant other, you will inevitably have some "pre-sleep activities" before going to bed, such as sexual intercourse. Wouldn't doing these activities before going to bed affect your sleep quality?

A study published in Sleep Science in 2022[4] investigated the effects of different types of partners on sleep quality. The results showed that sex before bedtime did not affect sleep quality.

Regardless of the frequency of sexual activity, it did not affect the total amount of sleep, and in contrast, both long-term stable partners and short-term random partners took less time to fall asleep than single people.

Of course, this is by no means a suggestion that everyone should just find a partner to help them fall asleep quickly. A long-term and stable partner can make people feel more emotionally satisfied and more likely to get better sleep quality.

Why does this happen? Scientists speculate that this may be because when sleeping with a long-term and stable partner, the sense of security will be higher, which can reduce the number of times you wake up in the middle of the night.

It should be noted that most of the research on sleeping with a partner is based on statistical studies, and the deeper reasons behind it still need to be explored by scientists.

But this does not prevent us from falling asleep with our significant other. After all, this is the simplest way to improve sleep quality (of course, the premise is that you have a significant other).

References

[1]DrewsHJ,WallotS,BryschP,etal.Bed-sharingincouplesisassociatedwithincreasedandstabilizedREMsleepandsleep-stagesynchronization[J].Frontiersinpsychiatry,2020:583.

[2] BrandonFuentes,KathrynKennedy,WilliamKillgore,ChloeWills,MichaelGrandner,0010BedSharingVersusSleepingAloneAssociatedwithSleepHealthandMentalHealth,Sleep,Volume45,IssueSupplement_1,June2022,PageA4

[3]PankhurstFP,HomeJA.Theinfluenceofbedpartnersonmovementduringsleep[J].Sleep,1994,17(4):308-315.

[4] SprajcerM, O'MullanC, ReynoldsA, etal. Sleeping together: Understanding the association between relationship type, sexual activity, and sleep [J]. SleepScience, 2022, 15 (Spec1): 80.

Author: Science Scraps Popular Science Creation Team

Reviewer: Li Jingjing Professor and Chief Physician, Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital