Happier Marriage, Better Sleep

A new study shows that marriage can affect your sleep – for better or worse. Results show that happily married women sleep better than women who are less satisfied with their marriage.

Women rated their “degree of happiness” with their marriage. They also provided information about any struggles they have with insomnia.

“We found that happily married women report fewer sleep disturbances,” lead author Wendy Troxel, PhD, told Reuters. This included difficulty falling asleep, nighttime awakenings, early morning awakenings and restless sleep.

The study involved a racially diverse sample of women. A Pitt news release reports that there were differences in sleep quality based on race.

Caucasian and African-American women had more sleep complaints. Japanese, Hispanic and Chinese women had fewer sleep complaints. Caucasian and Japanese women reported the highest marital happiness.

The study had controls for other factors that may affect sleep. These included depression, finances and employment. Marital happiness still emerged as an independent risk factor for sleep problems.

An earlier study of older couples also linked sleep problems and marital happiness. It found that having a spouse with sleep problems was related to having an “unhappy marriage.”

A Japanese study also linked being unmarried with poorer sleep quality.

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