Research reveals what your sleeping position says about your relationship
Research carried out at the Edinburgh International Science Festival has discovered what people’s preferred sleeping position reveals about their relationships and personality, in the first survey of its kind to examine couples’ sleeping positions.
The work, carried out by University of Hertfordshire psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, involved asking over 1000 people to describe their preferred sleeping position and to rate their personality and quality of their relationship.
The research revealed the most popular sleep positions for couples, with 42% sleeping back to back, 31% sleeping facing the same direction and just 4% spending the night facing one another. In addition, 12% of couples spend the night less than an inch apart whilst 2% sleep over 30 inches apart.
‘One of the most important differences involved touching,’ noted Wiseman, ‘94% of couples who spent the night in contact with one another were happy with their relationship, compared to just 68% of those that didn’t touch’.
In addition, the further apart the couple spent the night, the worse their relationship, with 86% of those who slept less than an inch apart from their partner being happy with their relationship, compared to only 66% of those who slept more than 30 inches apart.
The work also revealed that extroverts tended to spend the night close to their partners, and more creative types tended to sleep on their left hand side.
‘This is the first survey to examine couples’ sleeping positions, and the results allow people to gain an insight into someone’s personality and relationship by simply asking them about their favourite sleeping position’ noted Wiseman.
Professor Richard Wiseman is the author of Night School, which examines the science of sleep and dreaming after a 2-year study into dream control which was launched at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in 2012.
He returns to the Science Festival on Thursday 17 April, 2014 to talk about his findings in Richard Wiseman’s Night School, sharing with the audience insights into the power of the sleeping mind, and how they can improve their quality of life through sleep. The event involves live EEG projection, a demonstration of mass suggestion, and several pairs of yellow glasses.
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