The greater the distance between sleeping partners, the unhappier the couple
How you and your significant other sleep offers clues about the quality of your relationship, says a new study.
Researchers talked to more than 1,000 people about how they preferred to sleep at night and to rate their relationship quality. “One of the most important differences involved touching,” says study author Richard Wiseman, a psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.
In the study, 94 percent of couples that slept snuggled or very close to each other were happy with their relationship; just 68 percent of those who didn’t touch were satisfied.
Forty-two percent of couples said they slept back to back, 31 percent slept facing the same direction and 4 percent faced each other while asleep. Twelve percent of couples spent the night less than one inch apart, while 2 percent kept at least 30 inches of distance between them.
“The results allow people to gain an insight into someone’s personality and relationship by simply asking them about their favorite sleeping position,” Wiseman says.
