Does sleeping next to someone improve sleep quality?

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Does sleeping next to someone improve sleep quality?
Thanks for asking. Have you ever cursed your luck at having a partner who snores, or spends the whole night tossing and turning in bed? It can be tempting to consider abandoning them to go and sleep on the sofa instead, can't it? Well, evidence suggests that sleeping next to someone does indeed have a pretty significant impact on adult sleep, whether that's a partner, a family member, or even a pet. Researchers from the University of Arizona looked into the matter and published the results of their study in Sleep Journal in June 2022 under the title, Bed Sharing vs Sleeping Alone Associated with Sleep Health and Mental Health. Was it a positive impact then? It turns out that bed sharing does actually help people sleep better.
Through a survey of 1,007 working age adults in Pennsylvania, the study found that the benefits included a reduced risk of depression, lower stress, and fewer problems with severe insomnia, sleep apnea, or fatigue. On average, people who share their bed with a partner fall asleep more quickly and have shorter wait for periods during the night, with the end result being more sleep time. The exception to the rule is when an adult sleeps next to a child. In such cases, their brain remains vigilant, actually increasing the risk of insomnia or sleep apnea. The same was true for adults sharing their bed with a family member, but to a lesser extent. The University of Arizona study backs up another one from Kiel University in Germany, which was published in Frontiers in Psychiatry in 2020 It found that couples sleeping in the same bed experienced less sleep disturbances and got up to 10% more REM sleep than people who slept alone. What about if my partner snores loudly or wakes up suddenly during the night? Obviously that complicates things. Snoring and other disruptive awakenings can have a lasting impact on the quality of a person's sleep.
Sometimes couples also have very different daily routines. In such cases, sleeping separately might not be such a bad idea. In recent years, the phenomenon has been labelled a sleep divorce. It doesn't necessarily mean that the couple don't want to be intimate together. It's more a practical arrangement. However, according to the Sleep Foundation, 25.7% of adults who start a sleep divorce end up sharing a bed again further down the line, mainly because they miss their partner. There you have it.
Now you know whether sleeping next to someone improves sleep quality. In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you will really know for sure.