Sharing a Bed is bad for your Health

I have always known it, and said it to many people for decades: Sharing a bed is bad for your health.

Now, after all those years when people looked at me strangely, laughed at me or even thought I had problems with my sex life, renowned British scientists and medical experts have confirmed my long-held opinion in full.

Couples should consider sleeping apart for the good of their health and relationship, say the experts.

Somnologist (sleep specialist) Dr. Neil Stanley told the British Science Festival how sharing a bed can cause rows over snoring and duvet-hogging, and how it robs precious sleep.

One of several studies into sleep patterns found that - on average - couples suffered 50% more sleep disturbances if they shared a bed.

Dr. Stanley points out that we were never meant to share our beds, and that historically human beings hardly ever did it until very recent times.
The modern practice of the shared marital bed only began with the industrial revolution (in the late 18th and early 19th century), when many people were moved from the land to overcrowded towns and cities, where they found themselves short of living space.

Before the Victorian era it was not common for married couples to sleep together. And in ancient Rome, for example, the marital bed was a place for sexual congress only, but never for sleeping.

Dr. Stanley, who set up one of Britain's leading sleep laboratories at the University of Surrey, says the people of today should consider returning to the old tradition of sleeping separately.

"It's about what makes you happy. If you've been sleeping together and you both sleep perfectly well, then don't change," he explains. "But don't be afraid to do something different. We all know what it's like to have a cuddle and then say 'I'm going to sleep now' and go to the opposite side of the bed. So why not just toddle off down the landing?"

Poor sleep is linked to depression, heart disease, strokes, lung disorders, traffic and industrial accidents, and divorce as well. Yet sleep is largely ignored as an important aspect of health.

"People actually feel that they sleep better when they are with a partner," says Dr. Robert Meadows, a sociologist at the University of Surrey. "But the evidence suggests otherwise."

Dr. Meadows carried out a study to compare how well couples slept when they shared a bed, versus sleeping separately.
He found that when couples share a bed and one of them moves in his or her sleep, there is a 50% chance that their slumbering partner will be disturbed as a result.

Despite this, couples are reluctant to sleep apart, with only 8% of those in their 40s and 50s sleeping in separate rooms.

Dr. Stanley, who is happily married for nine years, sleeps separately from his wife, who is happy with the arrangement as well.

Having served in the Navy for a long time and thus spent many years at sea, I have slept alone for most of my life. And as I am not married, this continues now in my civilian life. Even at times when I was in a relationship with a woman, I tried to sleep alone as often as possible. And most of the nights I shared a bed I was indeed disturbed by one thing or another, woke up several times and did get a lot less rest than I would have normally.

As a result of many years at sea, I never sleep very long. Between three and four hours of sleep is all I need within 24 hours, which means that I have more time for other things than most people (who on average sleep about eight hours each night).
One of the habits I developed over the years is to read and write during the hours of darkness, when it is quiet, no one disturbs me and no telephone calls interrupt my train of thought. So I hardly ever go to bed before 3 a.m., and by 7 a.m. at the latest I am up again.

In contrast to myself, my most recent partner needed a lot of sleep. By 10 p.m. - a time I am getting ready to write another couple of thousand words - she was totally worn out and tired and had to go to bed. Had I joined her there at 3 a.m., I would most likely have woken her up during her deep sleep. So separate beds are not only more healthy for most people, in our case they also helped to give both of us the sleep we need and protect domestic peace.

In fact, my long-standing criticism of modern sleeping habits goes even further than sleep itself. I think that our whole attitude to life, including the way we design and organise our houses, is in need of a drastic reform. Everywhere in the western world houses are rated by their number of bedrooms. Even the concept of a 'bedroom' is quite wrong in my opinion.

Why do we have one of the main rooms in the house (and several when it is a family home) designated for nothing but sleeping during the night? Unless one is an extreme long-sleeper, this means that a large space in the house is not used for anything for two thirds of every day. This is not only strange, but - more important - a terrible waste of good domestic space.

In my opinion we should re-design our houses, and instead of 'bedrooms' that stand empty all day and are thus pretty useless except for spending the night, we should have personal rooms that include a bed. Couples should have their separate personal living spheres, where they can do what they like best, follow their hobbies and keep things they are particularly fond of. These rooms should include a bed for sleeping alone.
Whenever romantic feelings occur, the partners can be intimate in whatever form and room they want. This would be a lot more interesting than limiting all sexual encounters to the marital bed in one designated and shared 'bedroom'.

As the sleep experts from the University of Surrey have established beyond any doubt, partners sleep better alone and will have more physical and mental energy after a good night's rest.
This should lead rather to more intimacy and happiness than to less. Not even to mention the many couples where one of the partners snores. This can not only ruin the other partner's sleep each night, it can - and does - also lead to disliking the snorer, to estrangement and eventually split-up and divorce.

So, as I have been saying for most of my life, sleeping apart makes happier and healthier people, and more couples stay together for life when they sleep separately at night.

Don't be shy, stubborn or inflexible! Discuss it with your partner and try it out. If you miss each other terribly, then - by all means - go back to a shared bed. But if you feel better and stronger in the morning, and are happier and more relaxed, then it would be the best to return to the long-established sleeping habits of our distant ancestors from before the industrial revolution.

The Emerald Islander


P.S. - When you sleep separately, you also do something good for our ailing economy. Buying two beds instead of one can stimulate business, and when you are happier and more relaxed, you are also more likely to do other things as well that will stimulate the economy. The only people who might see a decline of business would be psychiatrists, psychologists, marriage guidance counsellors and divorce lawyers. And this would not be a bad development at all.

Building in Cork City collapsed

While Ireland's government is crumbling at the edges and the coalition is close to collapse (see my entry of August 25th), the country itself is already collapsing and falling to pieces bit by bit.

No, I am not referring to the banks this time. They are holed below the waterline and sinking slowly, but steadily. And no adult alive today who has a working brain and seen and experienced the absolute crazy, irresponsible and ruthless attitude and behaviour of our banks will ever trust them again. (Any old box or mattress is a much better and safer place for your money than the ugly temples of silly greed and certain doom...)

But as I said, I am not writing about the banks today. When I say that the country is falling to pieces, I mean it literally.

The latest episode in this new series of contemporary Irish 'entertainment' did happen in Cork, Ireland's second-largest city, where a complete multi-story city building has suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed yesterday (photo left).

The incident happened in Castle Street, right in the city, and it is a miracle that no one was killed or seriously injured when the house collapsed into the street without warning.

The only 'casualty' was a small silver-coloured car that was parked right in front of the house, which collapsed on top of it and made it a complete insurance write-off. (see photo right)

The building, which was in a row of houses and connected to two other buildings to the left and right, was undergoing renovation for some time.

Buildings and offices on Castle Street have been evacuated and traffic diversions are in place in the area.

Gardaí in Cork are puzzled by the incident, and a full investigation is expected to take place.

This is the second time within one week that a substantial construction in Ireland has collapsed suddenly and without any apparent reason.
Last Friday evening a 20-metre-long section of the railway viaduct across the Broadmeadow estuary near Malahide station in the North of Dublin also collapsed without warning. (see my entries of August 22nd, 23rd & 26th)

In contrast to many other countries, Ireland does not have a national Department for Buildings and Construction. This leads to the ridiculous situation that there are hundreds of different rules and regulations for different kinds of buildings and structures, often very different from one local authority to the next.
At the same time Ireland's planning law and planning process is among the most complicated and bureaucratic in the world.

If we want to see some progress eventually, this has to stop. We have to streamline planning and building regulations on a national level, with the same rules applying equally to everyone. And when it comes to buildings and other structures, the element of safety and solidity has to come above all other concerns.

Even though I am not much involved with the construction industry or property business, I have seen over the years too many houses and other buildings that I - as a layman - would regard as unsafe or at least critical. They are still in place, and unchanged, and perhaps other collapse cases waiting to happen.

There is no inspection of buildings in Ireland, but such takes place in most continental countries, where buildings do not suddenly collapse. Where and when people take care, things work well, are functioning and satisfactory for all.
But in ridiculous banana republics like Ireland no one seems to care any more, especially not for the common good. Most people are just looking after 'No. 1' (themselves), and an incompetent government, hand-in-glove with a sluggish and self-absorbed bureaucracy, has no interest in the common good either. As long as our ministers, TDs and civil servants receive their exorbitant salaries, 'allowances' and - eventually - pensions, they don't care for anything else.

One of the recommendations of 'An Bord Snip (Nua)' is the complete abolition of the Department of the Gaeltacht, Rural & Community Affairs, whose few responsibilities could easily be taken over by other existing government departments.
This is one of the few recommendations of Colm McCarthy's four-men commission I applaude and fully agree with.
It also means that we could fill a soon empty space in the cabinet with something new and more useful than the Gaeltacht. Why not create a new Department of Construction and Housing and give it responsibility for every house, building and structure in the country?
Many other countries have such a department, and it is more than time for Ireland to follow suit, unless we want to hear of ever more collapsing buildings on a regular basis.

The Emerald Islander

Irish House Prices back at 2004 Levels

The latest index from the Irish Economic & Social Research Institute (ESRI) and permanent tsb bank reveals that house prices in Ireland have fallen by almost 2% last month.
This brings the prices for residential property back to levels not seen here since the summer of 2004.

On national average house prices have fallen by almost 5% in the first four months of this year.

According to this index, the average price paid for a house in April 2009 was € 248,640, compared with € 261,573 in December and € 311,078 at the peak of the property bubble in February 2007.

Prices for the (usually least expensive) houses in the 'first-time buyer category' are falling at the fastest rate and are down 7.9% already this year.

"This is the fastest rate of decline in national prices that we have seen to date since the index started in 1996," says Niall O'Grady of the permanent tsb bank, one of Ireland's major mortgage lenders.
"The particularly dramatic reduction in prices for first-time buyers reflects their reluctance to buy in a market that is still declining and where unsold properties are being reduced further."

Meanwhile several leading economists and independent analysts are predicting that property prices in Ireland will continue to fall "for at least another 12-18 months".

The Emerald Islander

Home is where the Hearth is

It has been a very cold day in Ireland today, and even here - in the "sunny" South-East - the temperature stayed at 1°C all day. In the afternoon even some snowflakes were spotted, and in the Midlands there were reports of some more serious snowfall. This is quite unusual weather for this country, especially in March. But as most of us must know by know: the world's climate is changing and this does not always mean global warming.

The fire in the hearth has been burning since the early morning, and despite its best efforts to heat my little old cottage, it still feels quite cold in some of the rooms. So I took some advice from a nice magnet (pictured below) that sticks to my refrigerator and spent most of the day with my laptop in front of the fireplace. And I did indeed feel the truth of the old saying: Home is where the hearth is.

Magnet Design & Copyright by Mayfield Communications

The unexpected cold spell has brought home - literally - a problem familiar to most people: Here in Ireland about 95% of all existing houses are not properly insulated. So no matter how much I put on the blazing fire, a significant proportion of the heat is lost because the walls and roof of my house are more than 100 years old and were built when no one thought or even knew of the fine art of energy conservation.
Cottages, meant to accommodate the working underclass, were built cheaply and fast, and many a clever builder made a few extra shillings by cutting corners on the quality of walls, foundations or other parts he could get away with. Even though the house has meanwhile been modified and modernised several times, it is still an old building without proper insulation.

The vast majority of people in Ireland live under similar conditions, and even most of the new houses, built during the "Celtic Tiger" boom, lack the environmentally friendly energy-saving devices which are by now common standard - at least for new buildings - in most countries on the European continent. Once again Ireland seems to trail far behind the rest of Europe, even though we are now fully aware of climate change, carbon footprints and energy saving.

In many of the other EU countries the government provides generous grants to people who are willing to put modern insulation and other energy-saving measures into old houses, and people take it upon themselves to improve their buildings and save energy and the environment at the same time. But no such programme exists here in Ireland. While the government, and in particular Fianna Fáil, is happy to see more and more new houses built in a very short time, no one gives a thought to energy conservation.

Not even the fact that the Green Party is now a coalition partner of FF in the government has done much in this direction. Neither John Gormley, their party leader and Minister for the Environment (who seems to be obsessed with energy-saving light bulbs), nor Eamon Ryan, the Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, have yet come up with an attractive grant scheme that would encourage the owners of old houses to properly insulate them.

Forget the changing of light bulbs and grand new energy schemes that won't be effective for many years! Help us to save energy on a wider scale by insulating our houses in the way our European neighbours on the continent can do it already. The energy savings would be massive, we all would benefit from it greatly, and the environment in Ireland would become cleaner and a lot more pleasant. Home is where the hearth is, and if our hearths can warm our houses more efficiently, we all have better homes and a better life.

The Emerald Islander