Best sleeping practices when you have a new partner

The benefits of sleeping with a partner

Through several studies, sharing a bed with a partner is proven to help improve sleep and sleep wellness, and can also help to strengthen your connection and intimacy with them. It can also provide a sense of security and comfort for people who may struggle with sleeping. Sleeping with a partner can help to reduce emotional stress and help you communicate better with them. 

Couples who sleep together reported a significant decrease in stress, anxiety and fatigue, and found that their relationship was strengthened through social support and physical touch, which shows a clear connection between love and sleep. 

Issues with sleeping with a new partner

While the idea of sleeping with a new partner can be exciting, there are a number of issues that can arise with suddenly introducing a partner into your sleep schedule. At Sunrise by Emma, we conducted a sleep report that detailed the common causes of disruptions to sleep by sharing a bed with someone else. These included insomnia, noise disturbances and general stress. The quality of the mattress couples were sleeping on also contributed to sleep disturbances among the couples in the report, as well as restless partners and bad sleep habits like snoring and stealing covers. 

The good news is that these issues are easily rectifiable with a few simple changes to your sleep schedule or compromising and communicating with your partner about your expectations for bed-sharing going forward.

Consider your partner’s sleep habits

You need to make sure your partner’s sleep habits sync up with yours, so as to avoid any pre-sleep conflict. You may need to try out different sleeping positions to get used to being in bed with someone else, so find what’s comfortable and communicate with your partner. If they prefer a completely quiet room, and you prefer background noise, you’ll need to communicate and come up with ways of compromising so you’re both as comfortable as possible. 

You can also take this chronotype quiz to identify which sleep category you fall into, and reasons as to why you may be more of a night person or morning person. This quiz could be useful to determine whether you and your sleeping partner have the same internal rhythm ahead of sharing a bed, to make coordinating your sleep schedule and habits a lot easier.

How to sleep with a snoring partner

Sleeping next to someone who snores can be extremely irritating for you and your sleep cycle. Snoring can occur for a number of reasons, and fortunately there are different things your partner can do to fix it. There are a few suggested ways of combating snoring, such as  lifestyle changes and sleeping on your side as the main solutions. You can also seek medical intervention or advice on solutions if you find yours or your partner’s snoring to be particularly disruptive.

Sharing a bed with a child or pet

Sharing a bed with someone else other than your romantic partner can be disruptive, especially if that person is a particularly restless sleeper, like some children can be. Sharing a bed with your child may not be as detrimental to your sleep in the short-term, but if it occurs frequently and your sleep is frequently disrupted, it can begin to have negative effects on your body. This is sometimes known as co-sleeping and can sometimes lead to unwanted effects such as depression, low energy, anxiety, stress, and memory loss, and interferes with daily functioning. 

The bottom line

Communication between you and your partner is crucial when both of you have different sleep habits. Once you find a middle ground and are able to establish a sleep routine that you’re both comfortable with, you’ll soon begin to feel the benefits of sleeping with a partner. Sleeping with a partner has also been proven to have many health benefits, however, if you don’t establish a way of communicating your expectations when sharing a bed, it can make it difficult to achieve a restful night of sleep for both you and your partner.