Married Couple Sleep in Separate Bunk Beds — and Open Up About the Shift It Caused in Their Relationship (Exclusive)

• Casey Tayler and her husband, Andy, have slept in separate beds since early in their marriage

• This past summer, the New York City-based couple purchased queen-size bunk beds and shared the news on TikTok

• Since then, the video's gone viral, amassing more than 7.4 million views and 6,300 comments

• In an interview with PEOPLE, Casey says when the video went viral she was surprised to see so many people cheering them on

Casey Tayler and her husband, Andy, have slept in separate beds since early in their marriage. But it wasn't until this past summer, after the New York City-based couple purchased queen-size bunk beds and shared the news on TikTok, that their sleeping arrangement took the Internet by storm.

Speaking to PEOPLE, Casey, 31, explains that the couple has always had "nontraditional" values. Originally, they decided to sleep in separate beds to cater to each person's lifestyle and sleeping needs. Then they decided to mix it up.

"What’s really pushed the bunk beds specifically is that, for a while now, we’ve had many friends who’ve turned their online communities into successful businesses, and we’re looking to break into the hotel industry," she says. "Our current apartment is roughly the size of a hotel room, so while that afforded us a great neighborhood, it’s also given us an opportunity to experiment with layouts and nontraditional furniture."

After searching on and off, one day while browsing Amazon, Andy, 27, found queen-size bunk beds available for pre-order for $350. He immediately signed up for the waitlist. Once the beds arrived, the couple spent time building them, which wasn’t as difficult as they expected.

They decided Casey would sleep on the bottom bunk, and Andy would take the top — partly based on their cats’ preferences.

"Charlotte, Andy’s cat, is very active and loves to jump to great heights, so we assumed she’d have an easier time getting up high to sleep with Andy," Casey says. "Arthur, my cat, is a bit less active, so we thought it would be easier for him to stay closer to the ground."

However, "as time went on, we decided, for safety reasons, that it would be better for me to sleep on the top bunk — just in case an accident happened and the bed broke, so Andy would take the hit," she adds. "We also thought it might help Arthur get a bit more exercise. We figured that, given the opportunity to climb up and down each day, he could get in better shape — and it worked like a charm. He’s now healthier and more in shape than we’ve ever seen him in his five years of life."

"It really was a win-win for everyone’s health in the family, animals included," she continues.

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In the midst of everything, Casey, who's been sharing about her life on social media for almost 10 years, posted about the couple's new bed setup on TikTok. Since then, the video's gone viral, amassing more than 7.4 million views and 6,300 comments.

Casey says when the video went viral she was surprised to see so many people cheering them on.

"We had so many people saying, 'Thank you for normalizing sleeping apart, my friends and family think we are crazy!' " she says. "While most people don’t sleep in bunk beds, so many couples do sleep apart. It became such a big conversation I think due to the fact that it is so widely explored in real life but silenced in outside conversation due to fear of judgment."

"When we share our stories online, we allow others to understand how normal and connected so many of our daily occurrences are," she continues. "I’ll take a small amount of hate any day knowing that millions of people feel seen and validated. Hate means nothing when you have the ability to foster a community based on connection and realness."

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Since getting the bunk beds the couple says it's changed both their sleep and relationship entirely. Before it felt like they would wake up and resent the other person for disturbing their sleep overnight.

Now, each day they wake up refreshed and excited to see each other, Casey says. They add that their cats also seem happier, since they have more room to sleep without worrying they’re getting kicked off the bed.

"While I can’t tell you exactly what the future holds, I can assure you the option for separate sleeping will always be there for us," Casey says. "It’s not to say sometimes we don’t want the intimacy of laying in each other’s arms but when it comes to actual sleep, we consider it a health practice and we find that being apart works best for us to wake up refreshed and ready to have a strong day. Even if we went back to sharing a large primary bed, we’d always keep a good second option around to account for sleeping schedules."

"We got mixed reactions depending on how well people know us," she adds. "Our closest friends didn’t think anything of it and neither did our parents who sleep in separate beds as well, but there were definitely a few people who in a way felt uncomfortable by the idea, almost like you could see them trying to find something to say other than what they were thinking, which is to be expected and perfectly fine because we don’t base our decisions off of other opinions, only our needs."

Read the original article on People