{"id":25767,"date":"2025-04-11T09:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T09:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25767"},"modified":"2025-04-11T09:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T09:23:42","slug":"can-a-sleep-divorce-improve-your-sex-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25767","title":{"rendered":"Can a \u2018Sleep Divorce\u2019 Improve Your Sex Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Therapists and couples say that sometimes a \u201csleep divorce\u201d can revive a relationship.<\/p>\n

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When Natalie and Shane Plummer moved into separate bedrooms 12 years ago, they really just wanted more sleep.<\/p>\n

The couple, who have been married for 24 years and live in Meridian, Idaho, hoped Ms. Plummer would get a respite from her husband\u2019s snoring. (She did.) They also thought Mr. Plummer, 47 \u2014 the tidier partner \u2014 might enjoy having his own space. (He did.)<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t foresee how much the change would improve their sex life.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur frequency has definitely increased,\u201d said Ms. Plummer, 47, and \u201cthe quality of our sex has definitely<\/em> increased. When we\u2019re together in a bed, there\u2019s a purpose for it. We\u2019re talking. Or we\u2019re cuddling. Or we\u2019re having sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision to sleep separately, sometimes called a \u201csleep divorce,\u201d is both taboo and fairly common. In a 2023 American Academy of Sleep Medicine survey<\/a>, more than one-third of respondents said they regularly or occasionally slept in another room to accommodate their partner. Though this is sometimes seen as a sign a couple is at odds, many sleep divorc\u00e9es and sex therapists say it can actually help reignite a spark.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m a huge advocate for this practice,\u201d said Cyndi Darnell, a sex and relationships therapist in New York City and the author of \u201cSex When You Don\u2019t Feel Like It: The Truth about Mismatched Libido and Rediscovering Desire.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her experience, couples often share a bed because they think they should, but lying next to someone does not necessarily foster intimacy \u2014 particularly if doing so leaves both partners too tired to function and feel, well, sexy.<\/p>\n

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Therapists and couples say that sometimes a \u201csleep divorce\u201d can revive a relationship.When Natalie and Shane Plummer moved into separate bedrooms 12 years ago, they really just wanted more sleep.The couple, who have been married for 24 years and live in Meridian, Idaho, hoped Ms. Plummer would get a respite from her husband\u2019s snoring. (She did.) They also thought Mr. Plummer, 47 \u2014 the tidier partner \u2014 might enjoy having his own space. (He did.)They didn\u2019t foresee how much the change would improve their sex life.\u201cOur frequency has definitely increased,\u201d said Ms. Plummer, 47, and \u201cthe quality of our sex has definitely increased. When we\u2019re together in a bed, there\u2019s a purpose for it. We\u2019re talking. Or we\u2019re cuddling. Or we\u2019re having sex.\u201dThe decision to sleep separately, sometimes called a \u201csleep divorce,\u201d is both taboo and fairly common. In a 2023 American Academy of Sleep Medicine survey, more than one-third of respondents said they regularly or occasionally slept in another room to accommodate their partner. Though this is sometimes seen as a sign a couple is at odds, many sleep divorc\u00e9es and sex therapists say it can actually help reignite a spark.\u201cI\u2019m a huge advocate for this practice,\u201d said Cyndi Darnell, a sex and relationships therapist in New York City and the author of \u201cSex When You Don\u2019t Feel Like It: The Truth about Mismatched Libido and Rediscovering Desire.\u201dIn her experience, couples often share a bed because they think they should, but lying next to someone does not necessarily foster intimacy \u2014 particularly if doing so leaves both partners too tired to function and feel, well, sexy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25769,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25767"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25770,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767\/revisions\/25770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}