New Book: "Two in a Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing"

In his soon-to-be released book, "Two in a Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing," author Paul Rosenblatt examines the dynamic of couples sharing their sleeping space.

According to ScienceDaily:

While a plethora of writing exists about adults sleeping as an individual phenomenon, until now there was no book about sharing a bed, even though it's a part of millions of couples' lives.

"Sharing a bed is a complicated, changing and often a challenging experience and no one had written about it," Rosenblatt said. In his study for the book, Rosenblatt interviewed 42 bed-sharing couples. He examines what it means to share a bed with someone else, how it affects the couple's relationship, how the relationship affects the bed sharing and how couples dealt with the complexities of sharing a bed.

For most couples, their time chatting in bed is the most time they have to talk with each other on a daily basis and that talk can be crucially important to their relationship, Rosenblatt said.

Many books on sleep offer advice to individuals on how to sleep well, but those books do not delve into the connections between individual sleep and couple bed sharing, Rosenblatt said. One partner's health problems, snoring, or work tensions can impact the other's sleeping. Two people differ in hundreds of ways, and those differences can create trouble when people share a bed -- deep sleepers versus light sleepers, night-owls versus early birds and people who need the covers tucked in versus people who need them untucked. Those differences can be issues for a couple and how the differences are addressed can affect both partner's sleep. And, one partner's sleep problem can be a problem for the other. "For example," Rosenblatt said, " his insomnia can wreck her sleep."

Snoring is a common issue for couples and each couple finds their own ways to resolve the difficulty. For some, it involves a simple nudge and for others, it was more extreme like the couple sleeping on separate floors, he said.

"As life changes, people have to learn how to sleep together and not just once, but again and again," Rosenblatt said.

If one partner has an injury or chronic illness or when the couples have kids, the couple needs to adjust to the new circumstances.

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