Sleeping apart due to snoring could improve relationships, scientist says

Sleeping in separate rooms due to a snoring partner could improve people’s relationships rather than marking the end, a leading sleep scientist has said.

Couples moving into separate rooms can enter the “beginning of a new relationship”, where they are well rested and, ideally, happier, according to Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience at the University of Oxford and director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology.

Delivering a lecture at the Hay festival on how to have a good night’s sleep, Foster said earplugs were not the only solution to a snoring partner. “A lot of people sidle up to me, usually on their own, and say, ‘What can I do? Earplugs don’t work’.

“If it’s just snoring, what do you do? Well, you sleep in another place. So many people say, ‘I slept with my partner for 50 years, it’s the end of our relationship’.

“No, it isn’t. It’s the beginning of a new relationship where both of you ideally would be happier, more responsive to each other, less impulsive, less irritable, so I don’t think you should be afraid to sleep in an alternative sleeping space if you have one.”

Foster says it is important to visit a doctor to make sure snorers do not have obstructive sleep apnoea, which is one of the most common causes of snoring and can be dangerous if left untreated.

He offered some other tips for sleeping better, including deleting sleep apps from phones and doing away with trackers, which canalleviate anxiety around sleep and improve the overall quality.

“Don’t take sleep apps seriously. They are useless. They’re OK to tell you roughly when you went to sleep, if you woke up in the night and when you finally got up. But when they start saying, ‘You had a good night’s sleep, you got lots of REM sleep’, it’s just nonsense,” he said.

Getting morning light is also important for the body’s circadian rhythm, he adds. People’s circadian rhythm, or body clock, responds to light so increasing the amount of light exposure by getting outside during the day can help people to be more alert.