Want a happier relationship? Get some more sleep, study finds

Couple unhappy in bed
Sleep could be having more on an impact than we think [Photo: Pexels]

Worried that you and your significant other aren’t set to last?

But before you go ahead and break up with them consider this; have you been having enough sleep lately?

If you haven’t been getting enough shut eye it might be making you feel less happy about your relationship, as a new study by Maranges and McNulty has found a link between sleep deprivation and romantic relationship satisfaction.

And that if you get plenty of sleep, well, it’ll probably mean you’re happier with your relationship.

Sleeping
Any excuse to doze for that bit longer [Photo: Pexels]

According to Psychology Today, researchers had 70 newly-wed heterosexual couples complete a survey each week assessing their sleep, satisfaction with certain elements of their relationship (such as conflict and sex) and their global (general) relationship satisfaction.

And they found that couples were happier with their relationships on days in which they’d had a better night’s sleep.

Husbands who slept well also displayed a weaker link between making a negative evaluation of specific relationship events and the negativity towards their relationship as a whole.

Couple arguing
Could getting more sleep result in fewer arguments? [Photo: Pexels]

Long story short, if a guy got enough sleep in the tests, rubbish relationship moments on any given day didn’t make them feel worse about their relationship more generally.

The study’s authors concluded that sleep deprivation can negatively affect our “self-regulatory strength”; our emotional stamina and ability to stop negative feelings about small specific things from leaking into general negative judgements about life (or our relationships) as a whole.

So if you want to feel more positive about your relationship, perhaps you should be getting an earlier night tonight.

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