How Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Marriage

Marriages are never all just plain sailing, and if they were, then that would probably be quite unnatural. No matter what people may think, ups and downs are part and parcel of human life. Couples share almost everything; bank accounts, cars, secrets, happiness, sorrow, toilets and more! It’s this sharing that allows you to be closer to each other and strengthens your relationship. However, if one thing is going to put a strain on you in general, let alone a relationship, it’s falling short of sleep on a regular basis.

It’s unlikely that sleep deprivation would be your answer if we asked you why relationships are affected in a detrimental way, but it is, in fact, potentially rather serious. Don’t fret though, you can work together to keep the issue at bay.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute state that, “quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.” So, when you see on sleep specific websites such as  sleepadvisor.org, it’s easy to see how, if just one of these areas, let alone all of them are disturbed, the outcome can leak into your marriage and cause problems.

Just to highlight how sleep deprivation affects a marriage, we’ve picked out some of the main ways that things can alter as a result.

1. You Become Less Appreciative

You can be married to the most heart-warming, caring, considerate person in the world, but even that person can get on your last nerve when you’ve not enjoyed quality sleep and you’re super tired.

As a matter of fact, psychologists at the University of California discovered that those who don’t receive adequate levels of slumber are less thankful for the partners they have and what they do for them. The results of this research suggest that gratitude becomes reduced when sleep deprivation is introduced.

[ Read: How to Fix a Broken Relationship ]

2. Arguments Increase, Empathy Decreases

If you’ve arrived home after a tough day at work and you haven’t had much sleep the night before, you will know how snappy you can get at the slightest thing. Whether your partner or anyone else you are with, wanted to pick a fight with you or not, you’re much more likely to go for the jugular!

Research available in the Journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science found that couples’ conflicts rise in occurrence due to sleep deprivation, and it only has to affect one of the two people in the couple.

In addition, this study cited that couples who had feelings of tiredness displayed a reduction in their empathy levels for one another when trying to resolve the issue at hand.

3. Decision-Making Becomes Impaired

People make ill-judged decisions due to a lack of sleep all the time. It’s amazing to know just how much your decision making is impaired when you lose out on precious sleep.

When you’re tired, you can’t make sound decisions; it is as simple as that, and this is down to the fact that tiredness brings down the level of functionality that your brain has.

Psychology Today explains that sleep deprivation affects us in the following ways:

• Easily distracted
• Reckless
• Not as innovative
• Less able to integrate information
• Possibly more prepared to take hazardous risks

It’s these types of judgements that are certain to cause issues in your marriage while also adding avoidable tension between you and your loved one.

[ Read: Morning Rituals That Can Change Your Life ]

4. Marriage Satisfaction Takes a Hit

Enjoying a higher quality of sleep equates to boosted satisfaction levels in your marriage.

A big question often follows the question of how you actually achieve solid sleep that is of worth when you are a couple and experts have explained that couples who dial in a synchronization of sleep and wake times resulted in better overall good feeling in their marriage.

Of course, this means that for those couples who are living their day-to-day lives without of sync sleep are far more susceptible to experiencing a lowering in their relationship satisfaction along with more general negativity, which isn’t healthy for anyone.

5. Your Sex Life Slips to New Lows

They say that the bedroom should be reserved strictly for two things; sex and sleep. So, if you’re not getting enough of one (sleep), then you’re at a heightened risk of losing out on your sex life, or it can become diminished at the very least!

Moreover, according to Everyday Health, as you get sleepier, your libido drastically reduces as a result, which is a definite reason to ensure you’re getting good sleep.

[ Read: Factors That Affect Female Fertility ]

6. Your Behavior Affects Others Too

If you’re not happy, then your behavior and mood have the potential to rub off and bring others down too.

A research team at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine established that when they studied how a poor night’s sleep for women affected their significant others, both partners described experiencing similar negative responses to their spouse when the next day came.

7. Sleep Divorce can Ensue

“Sleep Divorce” is a term that refers to couples opting to – whether they are happy with it or not – sleep in separate rooms. Some instances of sleep disruption can lead to marriages ending and couples going their separate ways.

Sleep Divorce is an alternative option to keep the relationship together, but it is still not an ideal situation and isn’t exactly what you signed up for when you married the person of your dreams!

You see, this last point goes to show how severe the interruption of sleep has on an individual, and subsequently, the relationship.

Couples usually opt to move for a Sleep Divorce when their partner is a chronic snorer, has night terrors, wakes frequently, or feel temperatures on completely different ends of the scale to their significant other.

In lesser cases, for example, loved ones who endure hot flushes or feel the cold easily, then different covers are used, or different bed while in the same bedroom in order to avoid total separation during the night-time.

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