It’s the last thing we need in an already debilitating pandemic: a partner disrupting our sleep.
Yet many of us lose our closed eyes because our partner snores like a bear or like pigs the blankets. Keeps scrolling on a phone until the small hours. Throw and spin with insomnia. Or has a different sleep schedule that we are constantly trying to adapt to.
Wendy Troxel is a senior behavioral and social scientist at Rand Corp. and clinical psychologist specializing in sleep medicine. In her new book, Sharing the Covers: Every Couple’s Guide to Better Sleep, she explores how co-sleeping affects both our sleep and our relationship.
I spoke with Dr. Troxel about negotiating joint sleep problems. Here are edited excerpts from that interview.
How important is sleep to a relationship?