Couples' Sleeping Position Talks about Quality of Relationship

The position couples sleep in says a lot about their romantic relationships, according to a new finding.

The research carried out by researchers at the University of Hertfordshire discovered that people's preferred sleeping position gives an insight into their quality of relationships as well as personality.

The study led by Professor Richard Wiseman was conducted on over 1000 people who were asked to describe their preferred sleeping position and also to rate their personality and the quality of their relationship.

Professor Wiseman said in a statement, "This is the first survey to examine couples' sleeping positions, and the results allow people to gain an insight into someone's personality and relationship by simply asking them about their favourite sleeping position."

The researchers noticed that the most popular sleep position among couples is back to back sleeping. Nearly 32 percent of the couples reported sleeping back to back, 31 percent couple slept facing in the same direction and 4 percent of them slept facing one another. 

Apart from this, there were 12 percent couples who spent the night sleeping less than an inch apart and 2 percent of them slept nearly 30 inches apart.

"One of the most important differences involved touching, with 94% of couples who spent the night in contact with one another were happy with their relationship, compared to just 68% of those that didn't touch," said Professor Wiseman.

The researchers also noticed that the couples who spent the night sleeping apart from each other reported having troubled relationships.  There were 86 percent of the participants who slept less than an inch apart from each other and were happy with their relationship when compared to 68 percent of them who didn't touch.

It was mostly the extroverts who spend the night sleeping close to their partners. Researchers also found that the creative kind of people were more likely to sleep on their left hand side.

A study conducted earlier revealed that half of the British couples choose to turn their backs on their partners when the lights go out.

This study was carried out at the Edinburgh International Science Festival.