Of course, your partner never quite lies, so you would expect to sleep less deeply with someone else in bed next to you. But nothing could be further from the truth, according to recent research.
Sleeping with someone you love has a positive effect on how you sleep and how you feel when you wake up. The findings of the American researchers are based on surveys and sleep scores of more than a thousand adults in the United States.
Compared to those who slept alone, participants who shared a bed with their partner reported feeling less tired, falling asleep faster and sleeping longer. This group also scored lower on depression, anxiety, and stress than those who slept alone.
“Sleeping with a partner has been shown to have significant benefits to sleep health, including reduced risk of obstructive sleep apnea, less severe insomnia, and an overall improvement in sleep quality,” University of Arizona psychiatrist Brandon Fuentes told Science Alert.
It is unclear whether the health benefits come from co-sleeping or from the quality of the love relationship in general. In general, people in good relationships have better physical and mental health than unmarried people.
REM sleep
Interestingly, the limited research on this topic shows that couples not only synchronize their movements during sleep, but also synchronize their sleep phases. When couples sleep in the same bed, REM sleep is increased by 10 percent and is less interrupted than when they sleep alone. This synchronicity is related to social behavior, attachment, and affection.
That may be one reason studies continue to find evidence that couples sleep better when they do it together. However, a convincing causal relationship has not yet been established. A person may only think that he slept better, when in fact he did not.
Sources): Science alert
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