Comments on: Why I’m Not Getting Enough Sleep

By: Save Marriage

Save Marriage — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:17:01 +0000

I would sincerely advice to all the readers not to opt for divorce just for the reasons like difference of opinion. I think a lot of times divorces can be avoided if they are sorted out by the husband and wife. Try sorting out your issues rather than ending them……

By: Singletude

Singletude — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:53:09 +0000

I have to agree with Singlutionary. I too have a hard time sleeping with someone else. Even after the adjustment period is over, I still find myself waking up in the middle of the night freezing because he’s stolen the sheets or aching because of some weird position he’s twisted my arm into. Even if he’s just shifting around, I’m liable to wake up and have trouble falling asleep again. I think that if I ever got married, I’d have to seriously consider sleeping in separate bedrooms!

By: Singlutionary

Singlutionary — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:35:09 +0000

I have never been married but I sleep way way way worse when there is another person in the bed. I usually get pissed off and go sleep in the other room or on the sofa where I can finally fall asleep. I’m OK with sharing a bed with non-lovers. Its the sleeping plus physical closeness that doesn’t work for me.

So there crazy married-people-sleep-better-scientist-lady! Take THAT!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:39:22 +0000

Bella would dig into the actual study - though it looks like there isn't a publication yet - but if you look at the report, you can already see the fallacy: Happier people are happier! Well, duh!

According to the results, higher levels of marital happiness were associated with a lesser risk of having multiple sleep complaints, but only among Caucasian women. Happily married women had less difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, fewer early morning awakenings, and more restful sleep as compared to unhappily married women. (My emphasis)

To me that hints that it's not marriage that helps women sleep but being content and happy. Divorced people sleep not as well because it's very stressful to go through a divorce! Have these researchers been under a rock?!? I find it rather annoying that they throw marriage in there as a variable even though their own summary shows that marriage per se has nothing to do with sleeping well.

The present results show that happily married women have fewer sleep problems than unhappily married women.

Take out the "married" and you get the same finding: Happy/relaxed people sleep better than unhappy/stressed out people. So, the only reason why marriage was thrown in there as a variable was to create some matrimania. (In statistics speak, I'd argue they're overfitting the model: Adding variables because they can not because they add any explanatory power).

By: iol femail

iol femail — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:08:39 +0000

Wendy …. studies only give you AVERAGES – so unless you’re the “average” then you can’t use the study as the reason that you’re a bad sleeper!

Take married women – if they’re mothers then for years and years they DON’T sleep well …. I wonder how much influence this had on the study results?

And I wonder what the age was of the study participants. For example, very young single ladies might be too busy partying and not sleeping. Plus there are a lot of older single ladies… and it’s a known fact that as soon as women’s female hormones start changing, their sleep patterns change. So there’s an element of hormonal influence.

Quite seriously though – have you seen a doctor? Just wondering if there was a medical reason …. at the WORST you might have sleep apnea ….

HOPE you didn’t fall asleep while reading this comment ….. it’ll either mean you’re very sleepy or I’m very boring

By: JamesD

JamesD — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:58:03 +0000

Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting