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DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1811879
Prevalence of “Sleep Divorce” and Potential Causes in Adults: Preliminary Data from the ELSA-Brazil Study
Autoren
Introduction: Recent data suggest that approximately one third of adult Americans do not (frequently or routinely) sleep in the same bed of their partners (a condition named Sleep Divorce). However, the potential causes of this common behavior are poorly explored.
Objective: To assess the frequency of “Sleep Divorce” and potential causes in the ELSA-Brazil study.
Methods: In this preliminary analysis, we recruited consecutive participants from the ELSA-Brazil study to complete a questionnaire addressing some of their sleep habits as well as their partner: 1) Are you living in a union/married or have a partner?; 2) Do you feel that your partner impairs the quality of your sleep?; 3) Do you usually sleep in the same bed as your partner?; 4) if not, what are the reasons for not sleeping in the same bed?; 5) Do you know if your partner has sleep apnea?; 6) If so, is your partner undergoing treatment for sleep apnea?; 7) Conversely, do you impair the quality of your partner's sleep?; 8) If so, what is the cause?
Results: So far, we evaluated 232 participants (age 62±7 years; 48.1% men). The prevalence of Sleep Divorce was 21.5% (partial sleep divorce: 15.1%, every night sleep divorce: 6.6%). Sleep divorce was more common in women than men (27 versus 17%). 70.3% of them attributed that the sleep Divorce is due to the presence or sleep apnea suspicious (loud snoring) in their partners. The other reasons that contributed to sleep divorce were use of electronic devices such as cellphones, tablets and television (21.9%); body movements in the bed (10.9%); and other reasons (10.9%). 17% reported more than one reason for not sleeping in the same bed. Conversely, 51.8% of the participants reported that they impaired the quality of their partners' sleep.
Conclusion: Sleep divorce is a common condition in adults. Although suspicious or confirmed diagnosis of sleep apnea represents the majority of reasons for not sleeping in the same bed, it is not uncommon to find multiple causes.
Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht.
Publikationsverlauf
Artikel online veröffentlicht:
16. September 2025
© 2025. Brazilian Sleep Academy. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
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