Although it may come as a surprise, someone else’s bad sleep habits can impact your own as we are all social creatures. This means that if your partner is doing something, you are quite likely to join them in. That is human nature.
Hence, even though you may know that some of their habits are messing with the quality of your sleep, it may be hard for you to fight back and make changes. Luckily, we have the solutions. Here’s how you can fight back without fighting with each other.
How to Handle Partner’s Bad Sleep Habits and Improve Your Sleep?
- Your Partner’s Sleep Pattern is Out of Whack
Although the cause of this problem is often work-related, there are numerous reasons why your and your partner’s sleep patterns aren’t matching up. In this case, both the consistency of your sleep schedule and your sleep quality can be affected negatively.
The Solution – Ask your partner to stick to a more regular sleep schedule and ensure that you keep a regular sleep schedule yourself. This is crucial if you don’t want your own circadian rhythm to get out of whack. And, to avoid waking each other up, try using a white noise machine or earplugs.
- Your Partner Falls Asleep on the TV
Many people have developed a behavioral association or habit of falling asleep to the television. Namely, such a habit can remarkably affect sleep as TVs, and also other electronic gadgets, emit melatonin-suppressing blue light, as well as a lot of noise.
The Solution – If your partner finds it hard to fall asleep without the TV on, try decreasing the brightness of the TV or adding a blue light filter to the screen. In addition, you can set a sleep timer so that the TV turns itself off after a specific amount of time. Again, earplugs and an eye mask can also come in handy.
- Your Partner Tosses and Turns in Bed
In general, when not being able to fall asleep, people tend to toss and turn in bed. As time passes, the frustration and anxiety over the lack of sleep increases, and it makes it even harder to fall asleep. So, this tossing and turning may lead to a choppy night’s sleep for both partners.
The Solution –Instead of letting them toss and turn after not being able to fall asleep, ask them to get out of bed and wait until they feel sleepy enough. Also, if you are super sensitive to their movements, buy a memory foam mattress that will absorb their movements or even two twin mattresses so that you sleep on separate mattresses with a small gap between them.
- Your Partner Prefers Keeping a Light On
Last but not least, some people prefer to keep a light on while they sleep. If your partner fits this group, your circadian rhythm can get disrupted. Plus, too much light before bedtime can also affect the production of many sleep-related hormones, like melatonin.
The Solution –You may compromise and agree to switch to a dimmed light or a night light if your partner finds it impossible to fall asleep without any light at all. The less light, the better. Similarly, you can try wearing blue light-blocking glasses in the evenings and switch to an eye mask once you get in bed.