A lack of quality sleep can have a detrimental impact on your overall health. Photo / 123RF
A lack of quality sleep can have a detrimental impact on your overall health. Photo / 123RF
A British doctor has gone viral after suggesting couples get a "sleep divorce" if they want to get better quality shut-eye.
Dr Karan Raj is an NHS surgeon who has more than 3.4 million followers on TikTok where he shares health and medical tips.
In a video posted over the weekend that has been viewed more than 559,000 times Dr Raj said that sharing a bed with your partner could be doing more harm than good.
Dr Karan Raj is an NHS surgeon who has more than 3.4 million followers on TikTok. Photo / via TikTok
"You should always sleep alone, if the other person moves in their sleep or snores that will stop you getting into the deep stages of sleep your body needs to recharge, affecting sleep quality," he said.
Dr Raj said that most couples had different sleep cycles, meaning that "forcing two people to share a bedtime" could leave one person or even both of you "chronically sleep-deprived".
You also run the risk of overheating when you share a bed with someone, he said.
"One of the triggers you need to fall asleep is a drop in core body temperature. Sharing a bed with someone increases body heat so it's going to take longer to fall asleep," he said.
His video got hundreds of comments with plenty of people happy to see sleeping alone "normalised".
"Finally! A positive healthy side effect to being forever single," one person joked.
"I love my husband but I HATE sharing a bed with him. He thinks I'm horrible for thinking this," another said.
"Finally moved in to the spare room after 18 year of sharing with a partner that snores. It's the best thing I've ever done," one person commented.
But not everyone was convinced, with one commenter writing that the "cuddles are worth the sleep deprivation".
While there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that people sleep better solo, research published by the University of British Columbia in Canada last year suggests your significant other's scent could help you sleep.
Dr Raj said that most couples had different sleep cycles. Photo / via TikiTok
In a study of 155 people, researchers asked them to sleep with a shirt their partner had been wearing on their pillow and then with a clean unworn shirt.
Sleep quality was then tracked over four days, with those who slept with their partner's shirt reporting more sleep – even when they didn't know the shirt had been worn by their significant other.
Women slept slightly better than men with the T-shirt worn by their partner, which researchers suggested could be down to a greater "need for security".
"The scent of another person is emotionally evocative," the study said, according to Psychology Today.
"We found that the exposure to the scent of a romantic partner overnight leads to improved sleep efficiency.
