Happiest couples spoon at night: study

The distance between you and your partner when you're sleeping could provide insights into the strength of your relationship, according to UK researchers.

People who sleepin each other's arms are on average happier in their relationship than those who sleep far apart. At the very least, couples should make some physical contact in the night – the study found that people who touched while asleep were happier than those who didn't touch at all. Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire surveyed 1000 people and found that 12 percent of couples slept less than 3cm apart and only two percent of couples slept more than 76cm apart. Of the couples who slept within 3cm of each other, 86 percent said they were happy in their relationship. But of those who slept more than 76cm apart, only 66 percent said they were happy. "One of the most important differences involved touching – 94 per cent of couples who spent the night in contact with one another were happy with their relationship, compared to just 68 percent of those that didn't touch," study leader Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist of the University of Hertfordshire said. "This is the first survey to examine couples' sleeping positions, and the results allow people to gain an insight into someone's personality and relationship by simply asking them about their favourite sleeping position." The study also showed that 42 percent of couples sleep back-to-back, 31 percent face the same direction and four percent face each other. Creatives were more likely to sleep on their left and extroverts tend to get up close to their partners. Professor Wiseman acknowledged that factors such as snoring could influence how close people sleep, and also whether people could tolerate their partner breathing on them. "The key issue is if you have a couple who used to sleep close together but are now drifting further apart in bed, then that could symptomatic of them growing apart when they are awake,” he said.

"Change in a couple's sleeping habits is the important factor."

Source: The Telegraph Author: Kimberly Gillan; Approving editor: Lachlan Williams