8 January 2017

FiveThirtyEight: Dear Mona, How Many Couples Sleep in Separate Beds?

The best existing data comes from the National Sleep Foundation. It found that 23 percent of respondents to its Sleep in America poll who were married or living with someone sleep in a separate bed or on the couch. But it didn’t ask why those couples were sleeping apart or how often they did so.

Plus that survey was conducted in 2004, so we thought it was worth getting some new, more detailed data on the topic. Early this month, we asked SurveyMonkey Audience to help us out. It gathered responses from 1,057 American adults who were married, in a domestic partnership, in civil union or cohabiting with a significant other. (Find the data on our GitHub page.)

Almost half of the respondents said they have slept apart from their partner at least once. And some couples are doing that regularly: 14 percent said that when they and their partner are home, they sleep apart every night. [...]

I have no idea how long you and your wife have been together, Anonymous, but it turns out that the “I Love Lucy” setup — two beds, one room — is pretty outdated. Just 12 respondents (3 percent of those who sleep apart) said they share a bedroom but have separate beds. Of the 482 people who specified where they slept when they slept apart, 39 percent said separate bedrooms and 31 percent said the couch were the best way to find some space.

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