Peaceful nights are just a dream for UK couples as one in four confesses to sleeping in separate
bedrooms to escape a partner with unbearable bedtime habits, according to new research released
today. Those who do share a bed are robbed of more than 70 minutes sleep a night by noisy, restless
and duvet-hogging partners. That’s more than eight hours a week, or almost two years over the
lifetime of long-term a relationship.
The study of 4,000 couples by Etap Hotel reveals that snoring is the number one night time
disturbance for couples, causing 75 per cent of people to lose out on sleep. And it’s having a
detrimental effect on couple’s relationships with nearly a quarter of people harbouring feelings of
resentment towards their partner, and lack of sleep causing arguments in 43 per cent of
relationships. Sex drive suffers in over a quarter of relationships and one in twenty people would
even consider splitting up with someone because of their snoring problem.
It seems that celeb couples suffer too with Tom Cruise, Sid Owen and Kevin Jonas amongst those
reported to sleep separately from their other halves because of a serious snoring problem.
Also high on the list of nocturnal bug-bears for couples in the survey was stealing the bedcovers (a
problem for 58 per cent of people); restless limbs (52 per cent of people); muttering, mumbling and
moaning (49 per cent); and one in three experience a problem with their partner talking out loud in
their sleep.
The most restless region of the country is East Anglia which has the highest incidence of snoring,
duvet stealing, tossing and turning, and sleep walking, while people in Northern Ireland are the most
likely to talk in their sleep. Passive-snoring sufferers in Wales are most likely to unleash a verbal
assault on their slumbering partner, whereas the sleep deprived of the North East get physical, being
the most likely to shove their partner out of bed
But it’s not just snorers and their partners who suffer, lack of sleep is responsible for 62 per cent of
people being short-tempered with friends and colleagues, and 60 per cent of people say they
experience problems with poor concentration at work.
In response to the research, Etap Hotel is trialling a special package for sleep-deprived couples who
wish to sleep apart.
Watch the videos and see how snoring can follow you everywhere