Mental Health Benefits of Sleeping Next to Your Partner (2024)

FAQs

Mental Health Benefits of Sleeping Next to Your Partner? ›

Sleeping with a partner may promote better quality sleep by helping you feel more calm, secure, and comfortable both in your environment and in your relationship. Deeper sleep can also help improve your mental health and mood, increasing you and your partner's ability to communicate and regulate emotions.

The Sleep-Health Connection

One key health benefit of sleeping together is a boosted immune system. Sharing a bed with your partner encourages skin-to-skin contact, which releases dopamine, the "happy chemical" that reduces anxiety and stress levels.

Oxytocin is also thought to alleviate stress and promote calmness. As a result, this may translate to feeling more relaxed and even sleepy when you're with Your Person versus when you are alone. There's even research showing that sleep in general is better with a partner, which might play a factor.

Sleeping next to a partner also increases the production of oxytocin and estrogen in women and oxytocin in men. These two hormones promote relaxation, support an ideal body temperature, and help people get deeper, more restful sleep. Oxytocin is sometimes called the "Love Hormone".

In fact, a research study with 778 participants found that the physical and sexual intimacy caused by sleeping next to a partner triggers the release of a hormone known as oxytocin. 5 The authors of the study note that oxytocin not only promotes better sleep, but it also reduces stress and promotes bonding.

Those who reported sleeping with a partner also generally indicated that they felt more supported in their relationships. Additionally, researchers found that participants sleeping with a partner reported fewer cases of insomnia, fatigue, and more time asleep than those sleeping alone.

Sleeping apart could also breed conflicts and, in the long term, emotional distance. "Without a shared space for reconnection, partners may find themselves easily detached, avoiding each other and ultimately not resolving their issues," Bingner said.

Health benefits

While sharing a bed can be intimate and romantic, there are some major health benefits to sleeping together, too. Sleeping together can lower your blood pressure (because of oxytocin, which we'll talk about a little later). Sleeping together can reduce inflammation.

Chemically bonded. Behind the scenes, the chemicals in our body can take off when we're near our loved one. “Being with someone we love and trust, inspires the release of love-induced hormones that promote relaxation, wellbeing and sleep,” explains Tasha. “Oxytocin is the cuddle hormone.

"Sleeping with a romantic partner or spouse shows to have great benefits on sleep health including reduced sleep apnea risk, sleep insomnia severity, and overall improvement in sleep quality," said lead author Brandon Fuentes, undergraduate researcher in the department of psychiatry at the University of Arizona.

What does sleeping next to someone you love make you? ›

Creates a bond. As mentioned above, sleeping next to someone you love can create a strong bond between partners due to the release of oxytocin during cuddling and spooning in bed. Additionally, just being physically close to someone that you love at any point in the day can make you feel better.

At first glance, the term “sleep divorce” might appear to imply relationship troubles. In actuality, it's a practice more people are engaging in to improve their sleep and relationships. A sleep divorce refers to romantic partners sleeping in different rooms rather than sharing a bed at night.

Researchers also found that sleeping with a partner was associated with lower depression, anxiety, and stress scores, and greater social support and satisfaction with life and relationships. Sleeping with children was associated with more stress.

However, one of the easiest and effective habits is to go to bed together. If you can't do it every night, do it at least a few times a week. Going to bed at separate times is more common than you think. Many couples stop going to bed together around three and a half years into the marriage.

Despite the negative perception of separate bedrooms, experts conclude that there are many benefits to the improved sleep from sleeping alone. In fact, one 2017 study from The Ohio State University found that quality sleep improved communication between couples and reduced irritability.

60% of people who sleep separately feel less stressed.

This doesn't mean they hate their partner; it could be because they sleep better than they did while sharing a bed. Sleep quality and stress are directly connected.

People who sleep separately report better sleep.

Sleeping separately seems to allow for better sleep than sleeping together: 60% of people who don't share a bed rate their sleep quality at a 4 or 5 compared to 51% of those who share one. Generational differences arise here as well.

Once a week may be the average, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right amount of sex for all relationships. "I've worked with couples who would argue that once a week is too much, and others who would say it's not nearly enough," says Stefani Goerlich, a licensed master social worker and sex therapist.

There is no set amount of sex a couple should be having. While research indicates that having sex once a week is associated with greater relationship satisfaction, there is no research that indicates that having sex more often increases relationship satisfaction.