Good marriage brings good sleep
Twisting and turning all night? Get married. It just might cure your insomnia. If you’re already married, sleep well as much as you can. That could hold the key to a good marriage.
Two separate studies conducted by US researchers have found a definite link between relationship status and sleep. And the news isn’t too good for singles, a population that seems to be growing.
In the first study, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania, researchers studied data on 360 female participants, their average age being 51 years, of the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation. Over eight years, the study tracked their relationship status and their sleep patterns by using both polysomnographic tools and quizzing them.
Researchers found that women who were in good marriages or stable relationships had better nights of sleep than did their single counterparts or even those who had bad marriages, were widowed, divorced or separated from their partners.Women who had got into relationships over the study period reported the same sleep satisfaction that stably married women did. However, this was only after a brief adjustment period that left them with restless sleep. Lead author Wendy Troxel said, “We speculate that these findings may reflect a ‘newlywed effect’ or simply the fact that these women may be less adjusted to sleeping in the same bed as their partner than the ‘stably married’ women.”
Conversely, women who lost a partner over the study period spent more nights twisting and turning. “Relationship stability as well as quality may be important protective factors for women's sleep,” said Troxel.
The second study, by University of Arizona researchers, involved 29 couples without children. The study found that the quality of their relations had an impact on their sleep. When they slept well, they were happier with each other the next day. But bad-relationship day meant bad-sleep night for both partners.
Brant Hasler, the lead author of the study, said, “When we look at the data on a day-by-day basis, there seems to be a vicious cycle in which sleep affects next day relationship functioning, and relationship functioning affects the subsequent night’s sleep.” He urged couples to resolve their conflicts before going to bed but avoid doing so after a bad night of sleep for fear of aggravating the problem.
By » pawan kumar on 2009-06-11 10:04:56