A Third of Couples Sleep Apart, and Call It a Good Marriage

A Third of Couples Sleep Apart, and Call It a Good Marriage

Separate beds used to be the last stop before the lawyer; the survey data now reads them as sleep hygiene, and I am trying to believe it.

Nuala Byrne

Two neatly made twin beds in a bedroom, no people, for the sleep-divorce piece on couples who sleep apart

Photo Clay Banks / Unsplash

A third of American couples now sleep apart, and the people who study sleep read it as respect, not a marriage gone cold.

"Sleep divorce" just means prioritizing sleep and moving rooms when needed, says the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, not a troubled relationship. The couples who try it bank about 37 extra minutes a night. And the softest figure: a quarter move back into the shared bed, mostly because they missed each other, and then sleep about ten minutes more than they did apart. I know the health case for staying on the sofa. I went back to bed anyway.