Your grandmother advised you never to go to bed angry with your spouse. Now there is science to support that old adage. At the recent meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, researchers presented evidence confirming a connection between restful sleep and marital quality. As reported in the Sunday Health section of the Los Angeles Times, "On a day-to-day basis, a couple's relationship affects how well they sleep. And how well they sleep affects how the relationship functions the following day."
Now for the science:
"Researchers at the University of Arizona studied 29 heterosexual, co-sleeping couples who did not have children. Each person completed sleep diaries for seven days and was also asked to record, six times a day, the quality of interactions with his or her partner. The study found that, for men, better sleep was linked to more positive ratings of relationship quality the next day. For women, negative interactions with a partner during the day led to poorer quality sleep that night for both woman and man. The study's take-home message...is to SETTLE CONFLICTS BEFORE GOING TO BED (emphasis added) and avoid confrontational discussions on a day when one partner, or both, has had a bad night's sleep."
Science has finally caught up to Grandma.
I agree that it is never a good idea to go to bed angry with your partner. Sometimes in a heated argument, both partners may need some cooling off time but it is never a good idea to hold of resolving the conflict until the morning. Bottling up all your frustrations about a problem in your marriage cannot be good for your health. I'm glad that science has finally caught up with grandma!
Posted by: Andrea | January 29, 2010 at 08:03 PM