If your house runs like mine, your spouse’s slumber is just as important as your own, because you know some unpleasant things are headed your way if he hasn’t been able to shut his eyes all night because the ice maker is too loud and his pillow smells like something that has to do with the dogs.

 

Yah. Well. Read up. Because a couple’s zzzzs translate into marital discord or marital bliss.

Sort of.

Rich Nauert at Psych Central explains the new research in his post “Sleep Quality Affects Relationships.” To get to it click here. I have excerpted some of it below.

On a day-to-day basis, a couple’s relationship quality affects their sleep, and their sleep also affects their subsequent relationship functioning.

For men, better sleep (as indicated by diary-based sleep efficiency) was associated with more positive ratings of relationship quality the next day.

For women, negative partner interactions during the day were associated with poorer sleep efficiency for both themselves and their partner that night.

“When we look at the data on a day-by-day basis, there seems to be a vicious cycle in which sleep affects next day relationship functioning, and relationship functioning affects the subsequent night’s sleep,” said principal investigator Brant Hasler, clinical psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona.

“In this cycle, conflict with one’s partner during the day leads to worse sleep that night, which leads to more conflict the following day. Although these results are preliminary due to the relatively small sample size and a subjective measure of sleep quality, the woman’s perception of the relationship seems particularly important, as it impacts both her own and her partner’s subjective sleep quality that night.”

To continue reading Rick’s post click here.

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