Two in a bed: The influence of couple sleeping and chronotypes on relationship and sleep. An overview

Figures & data

Table 1. Literature on co-sleeping.

Authors	Year	Title	Type of paper	Main findings	Sample size	Population background
Dittami et al.	2007	Sex differences in the reactions to sleeping in pairs versus sleeping alone in humans	Original	Co-sleeping is generally more disturbing for women than for men.	20	Healthy, heterosexual couples
Troxel	2010	It’s more than sex	Review	Women may be more sensitive to both soothing and stressful effects of co-sleeping.
Pankhurst & Horne	1994	The influence of bed partners on movement during sleep	Original	Co-sleeping increases nocturnal discrete movement. Women report more nocturnal disturbances by their partners. Both genders report better sleep when co-sleeping.	92	Heterosexual couples
Monroe	1969	Transient changes in EEG sleep patterns of married good sleepers	Original	Co-sleeping impairs objective, but increases subjective sleep quality.	28	Married, good sleepers
Spiegelhalder et al.	2015	Your place or mine?	Original	Co-sleeping leads to increased subjective sleep quality in both sexes and longer sleep in men.	30	Young, heterosexual couples
Troxel et al.	2007	Marital quality and the marital bed	Review	In couples, qualities of sleep and relationship are dynamically and reciprocally associated.
Blumen et al.	2009	Effect of sleeping alone on sleep quality in female bed partners of snorers	Original	Objective sleep quality in female partners of snorers does not improve substantially when sleeping alone for one night.	16	Non-snoring female partners to snoring males
Ulfberg et al.	2000	Adverse health effects among women living with heavy snorers	Original	Spouses of snorers are more frequently affected by sleep-related problems (insomnia, morning headache, daytime sleepiness and fatigue), regardless of sleep situation (co-sleeping or separate bedrooms).	1032	Women
Cartwright & Knight	1987	Silent partners	Original	Suffering from OSA in one partner is associated with higher levels of stress and depression in both partners.	10	Wives of male OSA-patients
Parish & Lyng	2003	Quality of life in bed partners of patients with obstructive sleep apnea or hypopnea after treatment with continuous positive airway pressure	Original	Use of CPAP in treating OSA improves quality of life in both partners.	108	OSA-patients and their bed partners
El-Sheikh, Kelly, & Rauer	2013	Quick to berate, slow to sleep	Original	Interpartner psychological conflict can impair sleep in both partners. Symptoms of depression and anxiety can partly mediate this association.	270	Cohabiting or married couples
Revenson et al.	2015	Hey Mr. Sandman	Original	Men’s symptoms of depression affect their wives’ sleep. Depressive symptoms are more stable over time in women with shorter sleep duration.	1086	Middle-aged couples

Table 2. Literature on circadian preferences and sleep concordance.

Authors	Year	Title	Type of paper	Main findings	Sample size	Population background
Jankowski, Diaz-Morales, & Randler	2014	Chronotype, gender, and time for sex	Original	Chronotype can have an impact on the time of day when humans feel the greatest need for sex and the time of day they actually undertake sexual activity.	565
Maestripieri	2014	Night owl women are similar to men in their relationship orientation, risk-taking propensities, and cortisol levels	Original	Night-owl pattern is more prevalent in men than in women, particularly between puberty and menopause. Eveningness may have evolved relatively recently in human evolutionary history and may be advantageous in pursuing short-term mating strategies. Eveningness in males seems to be associated with a higher number of sexual partners, but associations between eveningness and behavioral traits that are instrumental in short-term mating strategies are stronger for women.	501	Master’s students
Ponzi, Wilson, & Maestripieri	2014	Eveningness is associated with higher risk-taking, independent of sex and personality	Original	Higher risk-taking propensities among evening types may be causally or functionally linked to their propensities for sensation- and novelty-seeking, impulsivity, and sexual promiscuity.	172
Fabbian et al.	2016	Chronotype, gender and general health	Review	Associations of eveningness with negative outcomes in various domains may be stronger for women that for men.
Hida et al.	2012	Individual traits and environmental factors influencing sleep timing	Original	The sleep timings of a couple are mainly associated with the chronotypes of the husband and wife, but also significantly influenced by certain environmental factors.	450	Married Japanese couples, living together for >1 year
Gunn, Buysse, Hasler, Begley, & Troxel	2015	Sleep concordance in couples is associated with relationship characteristics	Original	Wives’ marital satisfaction is associated with couples’ sleep concordance, measured by actigraphy, regardless of husbands’ attachment style (anxious or avoidant).	96	Heterosexual, healthy, married couples, sharing beds
Hasler & Troxel	2010	Couples’ nighttime sleep efficiency and concordance	Original	In men, higher diary-based sleep efficiency predicted less negative partner interaction the following day. Vice versa for women, less negative partner interaction during the day predicted greater actigraphy-based sleep efficiency that night.	58	Heterosexual couples, sharing beds
Meadows et al.	2009	Exploring the interdependence of couples’ rest–wake cycles	Original	The variables of sleep most significantly interdependent in couples are actual bed time, sleep latency, light/dark ratio and wake bouts.	72	Heterosexual couples
Randler & Kretz	2011	Assortative mating in morningness–eveningness	Original	Two extreme chronotypes are unlikely to meet each other because they have the smallest overlap in their preferred active time during the day due to the circadian rhythmicity.	96	Heterosexual couples
Randler et al.	2014	Women would like their partners to be more synchronized with them in their sleep–wake rhythm	Original	Assortative mating according to sleep–wake rhythm exists, but for long-term pair-bonds, women would like their partners more synchronized.	167	Women