I love sleeping.
I'm pretty good at it.
So's my boyfriend.
Recently we moved house, so we've had to sleep in a friend's bed rather than our own, and we don't sleep as well as we used to. So I wake up more often during the night.
And this made me realise how much you react to the person you share a bed with while you're asleep. If my boyfriend's holding me and gets too warm, he lets go of me. After a while I'll go back to holding him, then let go of him a litle bit later. At which point he'll throw a leg over me. Or I'll lay my head on his shoulder. After a while he'll shrug me off so that we're spooning each other, before we get too warm and go to different sides of the bed, before we feel each other out again.
I find it fascinating how your relationship can develop while you're asleep, that you can still communicate while asleep. It all feels like a dance to me. But who starts it? Who moves towards the other and who moves away?
Research has shown that if you share a bed with someone you lose two hours sleep every night. And that having separate beds, separate bedrooms even, is better for a reationship. People aren't made to sleep together, we only began doing it during the industrial revolution because we had to. Despite this, only 8% of people choose to sleep alone, while everybody else chooses to sleep together, for better or worse. We choose security, the feeling of being together, love, instead of a good night's sleep.
I'm pretty good at it.
So's my boyfriend.
Recently we moved house, so we've had to sleep in a friend's bed rather than our own, and we don't sleep as well as we used to. So I wake up more often during the night.
And this made me realise how much you react to the person you share a bed with while you're asleep. If my boyfriend's holding me and gets too warm, he lets go of me. After a while I'll go back to holding him, then let go of him a litle bit later. At which point he'll throw a leg over me. Or I'll lay my head on his shoulder. After a while he'll shrug me off so that we're spooning each other, before we get too warm and go to different sides of the bed, before we feel each other out again.
I find it fascinating how your relationship can develop while you're asleep, that you can still communicate while asleep. It all feels like a dance to me. But who starts it? Who moves towards the other and who moves away?
Research has shown that if you share a bed with someone you lose two hours sleep every night. And that having separate beds, separate bedrooms even, is better for a reationship. People aren't made to sleep together, we only began doing it during the industrial revolution because we had to. Despite this, only 8% of people choose to sleep alone, while everybody else chooses to sleep together, for better or worse. We choose security, the feeling of being together, love, instead of a good night's sleep.
Maeve Stam
Super photography
Super photography
Slapers
next >>