Are you still harmonious with your partner's sleep time?
Maybe you prefer to go to bed early after nightfall, snuggling up in the dark under a pile of blankets. And he's a "night owl," watching TV or reading, not stopping until midnight.
When he finally snoozed, usually the lights were still on, but it was difficult to sleep. He rolled over and couldn't fall asleep, either rolling the sheets together or kicking them all out of bed, followed by a tug-of-war snoring sound, accompanied by occasional sudden shaking of legs.
As the morning light of dawn shines through the shutters into the bedroom, you may complain about the glare of the sun and your partner.
Image source: Stand Cool Helo
First, sleep disharmony: a phenomenon that many couples encounter
If the above restless sleep situation is familiar to you, don't be too anxious, because you are not the only one who has this situation.
According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), 3/4 of adults regularly wake up or snore at night.
In a NSF survey of women ages 18 to 64, more than half said they slept poorly several nights a week and often felt the consequences of poor sleep the next day.
What is the culprit?
In many cases, the culprit of poor sleep is snoring or a sleep disharmony with their partner.
Sleep experts believe that snoring, as a serious health problem, is a sign of sleep apnea and the biggest conflict before bedtime for many couples, but there are also many other compatibility barriers.
This disorder may be physiologically related, such as differences in body temperature, or it may be related to differences in personal preferences, such as choosing how hard mattresses to choose.
In fact, these have no less impact on good nighttime sleep than snoring, and these problems will be further exposed once the couple has passed the initial overly optimistic phase of the courtship period.
Second, sleep disharmony: it increases with age
"If you're younger, in love, more tolerant of problems," says Helene A. Emsellem, M.D.
Helene is the director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Washington, D.C.
According to Paul, a professor of family sociology at the University of Minnesota, sleep disharmony will worsen with age.
"For older couples, sex usually happens when they're younger, and now the problem is snoring, plus they go to the bathroom multiple times a night," he says.
As a result, the end result is that many older couples are reluctant to sleep in the same bed.
Other experts agree. "As we get older, we get more and more complex," Helene said. "For example, women have hot swelling and snoring."
Third, sleep disharmony: insomnia
Even in the absence of sleep disorders, a good night's sleep is still a rare thing for many couples.
"We often take sleep for granted," said Kevin Martinolich, M.D., an employee at The East Tennessee Sleep Medicine Center. It is not uncommon for patients to seek treatment after years of suffering from insomnia.
If you are suffering from insomnia, you need to look for the cause of insomnia.
"You need to take a step back and ask yourself 'Is the marital problem causing the sleep problem, or is the sleep problem causing the marital problem?' Kevin said.
uncertain? The answer may lie in what you and your partner are willing to do to address the situation of sleep disharmony. “
Ways to improve the quality of sleep at night: Sleep in separate rooms
More and more couples, young and old, are trying to solve the problem of sleep disharmony by sleeping in separate beds at night.
A recent NSF survey showed that about 23 percent of U.S. couples sleep in separate rooms.
British couples reportedly have this habit too. A survey by the Uk Sleep Council found that 1 in 4 couples surveyed often sleep in separate rooms.
This trend has become so entrenched that architects typically design two master bedrooms when designing a new home.
However, many couples still insist on hugging each other at night.
Rosenblatt interviewed 42 couples who slept together before writing Two in a Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing; according to him, the desire for intimacy makes many couples want to sleep together, aside from snoring and other vexing things.
Fourth, improve the quality of sleep at night: defeat sleep apnea
Snoring may not sound like a serious annoyance. However, it is often associated with a possible severe sleep disorder (sleep apnea).
Sleep apnea causes people to pause breathing during sleep, sometimes multiple times a night.
Over time, sleep apnea increases the risk of high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease.
Treatment of sleep apnea is not something that happens overnight. "Most doctors recommend that patients use a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) ventilator," said Dr. Rosalind Cartwright, founder of the Center for Sleep Disorders at Rush University Medical Center. "But follow-up is also important."
CPAP ventilators are equipped with devices at night including masks, catheters and fans, and while they may look like a beautiful Halloween mask, they allow users to get a good night's sleep.
The fan applies air pressure, pushing the user's tongue forward and opening the throat so that enough air can pass through.
This reduces the effects of snoring and apnea. "This machine looks bland and ugly," Rosalyn says, "so after a year, its frequency of use is reduced to 50 percent."
This is also why spousal support has become important. "It is critical for spouses to stay by their side, supervise and ensure that patients use CPAP ventilators regularly," Rosalyn said.
In a preliminary study exploring the effects of sharing a bed on adherence to CPAP, Rosalyn found that male patients whose doctors recommended CPAP treatment were much more likely to stick to CPAP treatment when their wives were around.
Very severe sleep apnea also requires other help from the spouse. When a spouse offers to help, weight loss (an important measure that needs to be done to eliminate sleep apnea) is much easier.
"You need to change the way you cook and go for a walk with him," Rosalyn suggested.
If you can lose 18 pounds of weight, you can generally turn complete sleep apnea into orthostatic sleep apnea, which only appears when the patient is in a supine position.
"When lying on your side, the symptoms of respiratory distress are alleviated," Rosalyn said. "Your mouth opens automatically." In order to train the patient to change the supine sleeping position to the side sleeping position, Rosalyn issued a T-shirt to the patient;
This T-shirt has a pocket sewn in the back with 3 tennis balls in the pocket. If they want to turn over, they will soon be reminded not to turn over.
"The whole process can take 1-2 years," Rosalyn said. "After the patient can maintain a lying position, there is no need to wear this T-shirt."
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