Sleep Studies Reveal How Bed Partners Affect Nighttime Rest

Recent scientific studies have examined how sharing a bed with a partner influences sleep patterns and disturbances. Findings from these studies provide insight into the frequency and nature of sleep interruptions among adult couples.

One study using actigraphy measured sleep in co-sleeping adult couples and reported that partners disturbed each other's sleep an average of six times per night. The data also indicated that roughly one in five awakenings for one partner coincided with the other partner waking up at the same time.

Further analysis from the same research showed that individuals remained asleep about half the time when their partner was awake. The study also suggested that couples who went to bed at the same time were more likely to experience mutual awakenings during the night.

Separate research conducted by Pankhurst and Horne in 1994 used actigraphy to track movement during sleep and found that approximately one-third of movement periods were shared between partners. This earlier study also recorded that 5-6% of all 30-second intervals during sleep included distinct movements.

What the numbers show

• Partners woke each other up an average of six times per night in one study
• About 20% of awakenings happened simultaneously for both partners
• Roughly one-third of sleep movement periods were shared between partners
• 5-6% of 30-second sleep intervals included discrete movements

Another large-scale study, reported by Fullpower-AI in collaboration with Stanford, compared sleep quality between individuals who slept alone and those who shared a bed. The results indicated that people sleeping without a partner experienced higher sleep efficiency, less time spent micro-awake, and increased amounts of deep and REM sleep, while also spending less time in light sleep.

The findings from these studies highlight measurable patterns in how co-sleeping can influence both the frequency of awakenings and the quality of sleep. The use of actigraphy allowed researchers to objectively record sleep disruptions and shared movements among couples in their usual sleeping environments.

Researchers observed that not all partner movements resulted in simultaneous awakenings, as about half the time, one individual remained asleep while the other was awake. This suggests that while sleep is often disrupted by a bed partner, individuals do not always wake up together.

Collectively, these studies provide data on the impact of bed-sharing on sleep continuity and efficiency, offering a basis for further research into sleep health and co-sleeping arrangements.

* This article is based on publicly available information at the time of writing.