夫妻分牀睡,婚姻更和睦

Separate beds aren't a sign of marital strife — they're the key to better health and a happier relationship.

分牀睡並不代表婚姻不和睦，反而對更加健康和幸福的婚姻關係至關重要。

Or so suggests a survey, which showed that one in six couples has resorted to sleeping apart not because they can't stand each other, but because they're desperate for a decent night's sleep.

一項調查顯示，六分之一的伴侶之所以選擇分牀睡，並不是因爲他們無法忍受對方，而是因爲他們渴望睡個好覺。

One party's snoring, fidgeting, or simply the fact that they crawl in at midnight when the other person bedded down hours before, can leave couples craving what's been emotively dubbed a 'sleep divorce'.

一方打鼾、不停翻身，或者僅僅是因爲對方在幾小時前就上牀睡覺了，而他們卻在半夜爬進被窩，這些都會導致伴侶們想要“分牀睡”。

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the report was conducted by a mattress company — but some experts agree with its findings.

該報告是由一家牀墊公司發佈的，這或許並不令人意外，但一些專家也表示認同該調查結果。

Not only that, they say breaking up a relationship at bedtime should be encouraged. Dr Neil Stanley has been conducting sleep research for 35 years — and sleeping not just in a separate bed, but in a different room, from his partner for almost as long. 'I'm the world's leading advocate of separate beds,' says Dr Stanley.

不僅如此，他們還表示應該鼓勵分牀睡。尼爾·斯坦利博士研究睡眠已經有35年了，在幾乎同樣長的時間裏，他不僅和伴侶分牀睡，而且分房睡。斯坦利博士說：“我是世界上分牀睡的主要倡導者。”

In 2005, he co-authored a study in which couples wore a device as they slept that monitored waking and motion: the results showed that when one partner stirred, the other did, too. 'In fact, a third of your sleep disturbance is caused by your partner,' he says.

2005年，他與人合作開展了一項研究，在該研究中，夫妻在睡覺時佩戴一種設備，監測他們的清醒狀態和動作：結果顯示，當一方在睡覺時動彈，另一方也會動。他說：“事實上，你三分之一的睡眠障礙是由你的伴侶造成的。”

The impact of this disturbance on your health, and the health of your relationship, can be huge.

這種睡眠障礙對身體健康和婚姻和諧的影響非常大。

A 2016 analysis of previous studies by Paracelsus Medical University in Germany showed that sleep issues and relationship problems tend to occur simultaneously.

2016年，德國帕拉塞爾蘇斯醫科大學對以往研究的分析表明，睡眠問題和婚姻關係問題往往同時發生。

Research also suggests those who sleep poorly have higher rates of divorce — and if a person sleeps badly, they lack empathy and are more argumentative. (Plus, just one bad night's sleep makes you four times more likely to catch a cold, according to a 2015 study in the journal Sleep.)

研究還表明，睡眠不好的人離婚率更高，如果一個人睡眠不好，他們缺乏同理心，更愛爭論。（此外，根據《睡眠》雜誌2015年的一項研究，一個晚上睡不好會讓你患感冒的機率增加四倍。）

'Poor sleep affects your performance, relationships, increases your risk of accidents and, in the long term, is associated with an increase in weight, type 2 diabetes and depression,' adds Dr Stanley.

斯坦利博士補充道：“睡眠不好會影響你的工作表現、人際關係、增加你發生意外的風險，而且從長遠來看，睡眠不好還會導致體重增加，並增加2型糖尿病和抑鬱症的患病機率。”

This is because each cell in the body has its own 'clock', so prolonged disruption to these rhythms through lack of sleep has a knock-on effect on every cell.

這是因爲人體的每個細胞都有自己的生物鐘，因此，睡眠不足對生物鐘節律的長期破壞會對每個細胞產生連鎖反應。

'Sleep is vitally important, and there's no reason to compromise it for the sake of an unscientific social construct of sleeping together,' insists Dr Stanley.

斯坦利博士堅持認爲，“睡眠是至關重要的，沒有理由爲了一個不科學的夫妻同牀而睡的社會認知而犧牲睡眠”。

In a book published earlier this year, Professor Hilary Hinds, a researcher at Lancaster University, explains that until the 1950s, sharing a bed was not considered desirable at all — separate bedrooms were the long-established preference of the upper classes, while the middle classes first took to twin beds in the late Victorian era, initially for health reasons.

在今年早些時候出版的一本書中，蘭卡斯特大學研究員希拉里·海因茲教授解釋說，直到20世紀50年代，人們都不推崇夫妻同牀，上層社會一直更偏愛夫妻分房睡。而中產階級在維多利亞時代晚期纔開始睡在臥室的兩張單人牀上，最初是爲了健康考慮。

'The predominant theory of disease transmission at the time was that illness would generate spontaneously in foul air,' Professor Hinds explains. 'So there was an anxiety that if you were to inhale the exhaled breath of your fellow bed partner, you were putting yourself at risk.'

海因茲教授解釋說：“當時關於疾病傳播的主要理論是，疾病會在污濁的空氣中自然產生。所以有人擔憂，如果你吸入同牀共枕者呼出的氣息，你就是在把自己置於危險之中。”

'Yet even when this idea was superseded by a more accurate understanding of how germs were passed on, twin beds didn't disappear,' adds Professor Hinds.

海因茲教授補充說：“然而，即使人們之後對細菌如何傳播有了更準確的理解，夫妻睡在兩張單人牀的情況並沒有消失。”

'It then became more a matter of getting away from the snoring or the less than fresh breath of your fellow sleeper,' she says.

她說：“在這之後，人們分牀睡更多的是爲了遠離鼾聲，或者遠離伴侶不那麼清新的氣息。”

'I traced twin beds through to their demise in the post-War period, when you see a new emphasis on togetherness in marriage and a move away from twin beds back into the double beds for sleeping couples.'

“戰後，伴侶們不再睡在兩張單人牀上，我對此進行了追溯，你會發現當時人們重新強調婚姻的親密，伴侶們不再使用兩張單人牀，而重新使用雙人牀。”

Now, after our 20th-century flirtation with the double bed, we seem to be moving back towards the preferences of the upper classes throughout history. 'Certainly, there is a growing trend for building houses with two master bedrooms,' says Dr Stanley.

如今，在經歷了20世紀對雙人牀的偏好之後，我們似乎又回到了歷史上上層階級的偏好。斯坦利博士說：“當然，現在越來越多的房子都有兩間主臥。”

But what if separate rooms aren't an option? Not everyone can afford an extra bedroom.

但是如果不能分房睡呢？不是每家都有足夠的臥室。

'At the least, two adults should have a 6ft-wide bed, a super king, because then you have 3ft to yourself as you would in a single bed; that would be a start,' says Dr Stanley. 'Twin beds are better, so you can have the mattress and duvet thickness that suits you.

斯坦利博士說：“至少，兩個成年人應該有一張6英尺（約合1.8米）寬的牀，一個超級大牀，因爲那樣你就有3英尺的空間，就像你在一張單人牀上一樣，這將是一個開始。兩張單人牀更好，這樣你可以選擇合適厚度的牀墊和羽絨被。”

'After all, sleep is the most selfish thing that we can do. You can't share your sleep with anybody, so why share your bed?'

“畢竟，睡覺是我們能做的最自私的事情。你不能和任何人分享你的睡眠，那麼爲什麼要和別人分享你的牀呢？”