Why It Might Be Healthier to Sleep Alone

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Why It Might Be Healthier to Sleep Alone

By Sara Ost, EcoSalon. Posted September 12, 2009.

From the marriage sucks file: The couple that snoozes together, loses together. scientists say sleeping together ruins your health.




And we’re not talking about that kind of sleeping together. The couple that snoozes together, loses together. Or rather, the couple that sleeps together, doesn’t.

That’s the latest finding from British scientist Neil Stanley. While American science reporting tends to focus on banishing the endemic muffin top, our friends across the pond have a none-too-wee fixation with la difference. If it’s not a breakthrough study finding that those helpless men are distracted by breasts or are just distracted in general, it’s the juicy promise of death by nuptial that keeps the html dot uk flowing.

Marriage is depressing. Marriage is expensive. Marriage not only ruins your waking life, your night life and your sex life, it also ruins the part of your life you’re not even consciously participating in. Oh, for heaven’s sake, is there no rest for the wedded weary?

The study reports that if you’re shacked up and sharing a bed, you experience 50% more sleep troubles than singletons. Sleeping together is downright unhealthy. So weird – I’m not married for this exact reason! Strategic brilliance from Ost, yet again.

My properly chilled Scandinavian grandparents may have been onto something with their separate sleeping arrangements. As a child, I remember thinking it was sort of weird that Grandpa and Grandma had a bedroom like Lucy and Ricky’s since we weren’t living in black and white anymore, but then being glad for it because it made jumping on the bed(s) twice as fun! ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/sex/142576/why_it_might_be_healthier_to_sleep_alone/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Just the opposite in my situation.

My SO has trouble sleeping alone and sleeps much more soundly when we're together.

[enlightenment]

4. But do you?

Or do you know your SO is sleeping soundly because you're lying there awake?

*teasing* :)

[tularetom]

2. Hah! Some of us don't have any choice

I've been banished from the bedroom for snoring after 47 years of marriage.

[FormerDittoHead]

3. What a mish-mosh of happy-talk and antidotes. What was about your HEALTH?

What starts out as practically a piece from Andy Rooney eventually points to the news item at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8245578.stm

...which refers to Dr Neil Stanley who sleeps alone and uses history and house sizes for his findings and then to another study by a sociologist (not a medical doctor) which uses only 40 couples.

They only forgot to use the word Cancer in the headline...

[Myrina]

5. Think about it:

... being able to sleep 'in your own bed' has usually been a sign of wealth - you can AFFORD 2 beds? Especially in the early 1900's when most working-class families were almost ridiculously poor. People were forced to sleep together (sometimes entire families) because there was only 1 bed.

I don't think its a sign of 'prudishness' to sleep separately (although I'm sure its mighty inconvenient for moments of spontaneous combustion), or a sign of 'unprudishness' to not sleep together.