After a horrible night of sleep, we usually aren’t our best selves the next day. The Center for Disease Control estimates that 50-70 million Americans aren’t getting sufficient sleep every night, with other studies showing that two-thirds of Americans share a bed with a partner. So how does this epidemic of poor sleep affect of relationships?
According to the PsyBlog, researchers at the University of California had some interesting results published in the journal Social Psychological & Personality Science when they monitored 78 couples over a period of 2 weeks.
Each day the couples wrote down their sleep quality from the night before, and noted any arguments they had with their partner. The findings showed that it only took one night of poor sleep by either partner to increase tension and conflict the next day.
Researchers found that poor sleep among the couples led to more selfishness, negativity, and more difficulty in resolving conflict along with less empathy. It was also noted that overall relationship satisfaction, stress, anxiety or depression did not impact the findings.
On the positive side, improving your sleep boosts your happiness, communication, memory, listening skills, self-control, and so much more, which can enhance your relationship.
Quality sleep also helps keep the doctor away, so it is definitely worth climbing into bed for 7-9 hours every night. Practice healthy sleep habits and rack in the benefits of a more loving relationship!
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